


Scorched Earth

by VisV



Category: Fallout (Video Games), Parahumans Series - Wildbow
Genre: AU, Altpower, Blame the Annelid DNA., Come Feel this Warmth of Mine~, Dominance, F/F, F/M, Hermaphrodite for Maximum reproductive efficiency., Likely Robot Sex at some point., Likely monster sex., Likely technobabble, Mind Manipulation, Multi, Mutation!, My Love's Like Radiation~, Other, Porn Because of Plot..., SCIENCE!!! is even more bullshit!, Tinkers are bullshit!, Very Vaguely sort of a crossover?, body horror!, psychic powers, robots!, science!!!
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-31
Updated: 2021-02-25
Packaged: 2021-03-09 00:27:12
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con, Underage
Chapters: 16
Words: 111,252
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27315502
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/VisV/pseuds/VisV
Summary: I don't want to set the world on fire~ I just to want start a flame in your Heart~Things aren't the same in more ways than one, Taylor's war on the decay of her world begins earlier, as ATOMICA!!! CHAMPION OF SCIENCE!!!... but in the face of the End... something had to give... The table's been flipped. The playing field has been changed irreversibly, and so has Taylor herself.But her War rages on all the same.And War? War never changes.
Comments: 72
Kudos: 173





	1. The Queen Is Dead.

**Author's Note:**

> Me Again! This is the last of my pre-written stories from QQ! It is also the story I'm currently focusing on writing!
> 
> Be sure to give me plenty of feedback, comments, discussion, maybe slip by and donate to my patreon if you wouldn't mind!
> 
> Anyways I Hope you enjoy it!

It hurt.  
  
As she sits there in the slowly rising water, tinged green with Radio-luminescent materials and… a failed project, she can barely focus on anything other than the pain, the feeling of her skin burning, her lungs scorching as a result of the red tinged mist in the air.  
  
Is this how it ends for her? Trapped in her own lair, and killed by drowning or by her own creations?  
  
Just another casualty of the bringers of the end…  
  
It had been… Frightening… To hear of the Leviathan’s impending arrival at Brockton Bay. But she had started this whole crazy endeavor to help her home town… She certainly wasn’t going to just abandon it to some monster!  
  
So she’d sent out her robot’s to do search and rescue, to provide medical aid, even to fight the beast itself!  
  
To no real effect of course.  
  
She hadn’t really expected the beast to open up a sinkhole right below her secret underground vault though, A sinkhole that her precious lair, a structure that she had spent the past year and a half building up and perfecting, promptly fell straight to the bottom of.  
  
It was a testament to her prowess as a tinker and as an architect that her vault hadn’t just broken apart then and there… hell some sections even still had power!  
  
Unfortunately, while the structure hadn’t been broken to bits on impact like a normal building would have been, her vault still fell hard, cracks in the superstructure spider webbing through it, containment vessels for everything from toxic materials to DNA samples had been broken open pouring out into the flood waters that had started creeping into the building, and of course one of the reactors had been torn open, spewing radiation into the building.  
  
And of course she had been sent for a tumble too, until eventually landing on one of her own experiments… back first.  
  
She couldn’t feel her legs.  
  
And so, unable to move, let alone escape, she’d just been forced to sit there as the polluted water rose ever higher around her.  
  
No one would be coming to save her, she’d used a verbal command code to put the whole vault into lockdown… Hopefully that would be enough to spare any survivors in Brockton from the toxic materials that were now loose in her lair.  
  
  
She coughs, hacking up a small dribble of blood as she does. A bitter laugh leaving her mouth soon after.  
  
So much for “Building a Brighter Tomorrow, Today!” huh?  
  
Then again… she’d always been a failure at that hadn’t she?  
  
Almost everything she made ended up failing to make anything better.  
  
Her Fixer? The Cure-All for drug addiction? It just allowed the addicts to avoid the physical consequences of their bad habits, encouraging even more abuse.  
  
Her Crop Protecting Fungal Symbiote? It certainly protected the plants… boosted their yield’s, even! And it drove off pests and disease without all the nastiness involved with normal pesticides… It also caused full body skin rashes in humans that resulted in agonizing pain.  
  
Her Pan Immunity Virion Project? Oh it definitely rendered the test subjects immune to all known diseases just like she wanted! But it also massively increased the subject’s aggression and sometimes rendered them infertile, and that was only the “Normal” reactions!  
  
She shuddered as memories of the subjects who underwent “Extreme PIV Reaction’s” coursed through her mind… Would she end up like that? The Vat had almost certainly been broken open, The PIV was almost certainly the source of the green tint held by the flood waters pouring in.  
  
It didn’t matter, Either the radiation would kill her, she would drown… Or her Anti-Regenerative Cloud weapon would finish eating through her lungs, long before the PIV could finish its work.  
  
Speaking of weapons… those seemed to be the only things she built that ever seemed to work as intended.  
  
Well besides the helper robots, but those just helped her build more weapons…  
  
The point was, her goal of making Brockton Bay into a better place was nearly a complete failure.  
  
Sure she and her robots went out to fight crime and the public seemed to think well of her… but Crime wasn’t something you could just beat up and call it solved, you couldn’t kill poverty with a bolt of superheated plasma, and urban decay didn’t care at all about how many laser pulses her guns could spew out.  
  
In the end, she was just another costumed circus attraction, beating up criminals and changing nothing.  
  
Well she had been at least, she was pretty sure she wouldn’t be much of anything soon enough.  
  
On one hand, maybe that was for the best, her power had been showing her ever more destructive technologies lately, an endless parade of scientific horrors and technological atrocities dancing through her skull.  
  
On the other hand, it was a shame, she had one more thing she had wanted to try… she was even pretty sure it was foolproof!  
  
A power source that could be burned like coal but produced little in the way of waste, and had a power output more akin to nuclear fusion!  
  
Her newest discovery was many times more durable than steel with only a fraction of the weight, and in it’s depleted state was completely harmless to human tissue!  
  
Energy production, Material science, Engineering, Medical Prosthetics… Her _Ultracite_ could have revolutionized all of those fields and more.  
  
But now it just served to cause her pain, tiny shards of the non-depleted and _very_ radioactive crystalline material embedded throughout her body.  
  
She was pretty sure one of those shards had severed her spinal cord.  
  
Well at least that spared her any pain that might be coming from the lower half of her body.  
  
It was… It was getting hard for her to stay awake now. Everything just hurt so much, her lungs were burning, her skin was burning.  
  
She struggled to hold her eyes open longer, knowing that once she closed them she wouldn’t be opening them ever again.  
  
But it was a losing battle.  
  
Her last thoughts were of happier times, of a mother still alive, of a father still vibrant and happy, of a best friend who still loved her and who she loved back…  
  
Maybe just a quick nap…  
  
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX  
  
Lost in the memories of better days, The Independent Heroic tinker _Atomica,_ otherwise known as Taylor Hebert, slumped over into and beneath the polluted water that flooded her self made home.  
As per her final order’s her beloved robotic assistants, minions, bodyguards, and friends, would stand guard over her vault, preventing any intrusion of, and repairing any damage done to, the structure, so as to seal away the harmful materials within.  
  
Atomica would be mourned by a significant portion of Brockton Bay’s heroic population, and even select out of town capes such as Dragon.  
  
In her civilian Identity she was mourned only by her father, and a friend who had come to regret past decisions.  
  
Though she was mourned for a time, the turmoil that engulfed the ruin of Brockton Bay soon after Leviathan's departure would soon see Atomica reduced to nothing more than a fond memory tinged with sadness in the minds of a few select capes, and a tragic footnote in the history of the Troubled Seaside City, and of parahuman history in general.


	2. Intermission

You are a simple creature, though smarter than your ancestors, you are still a relatively simple mind.  
  
But all the same you felt something akin to pride, your cluster had been the first to exit the Birth waters, to expand into the unclustered lands above!  
  
While this new land was unfamiliar, without the moving cold stones or the big shiny rock that had defined your infancy, you are confident that you and your kindred would survive, thrive and have many spawn here in your new home.  
  
There were so many soft fluffy meats to eat here after all. They were weak and defenseless, an ideal source of sustenance for your colony.  
  
The ground was soft and easy to burrow into as well, allowing easy submersion and reemergence from the soil.  
  
You had almost everything you could want… But all the same you felt like you were missing something, an empty void in the back of your mind remained unfilled no matter how much you ate, or how many spawn you generated.  
  
You were not a creature of philosophy, you didn’t even comprehend the idea of such a thing, your limited intellectual capacity simply was not great enough, but still, in your own rudimentary way, you pondered the void that you felt within yourself, the void that you shared with all of your kind… Your simple thoughts revolve around this strange emptiness as you lie in wait beneath the surface of the soil.  
  
Soil that was now starting to ever so subtly vibrate…  
  
Instinct overrides your crude cognition, you ready your tendrils and begin to prime your float sacs.  
  
Prey was approaching, The cluster would feed.  
  
Through the dirt, you feel your kin prepare much the same as you have, even as more vibrations join the first found.  
  
They were heavier than usual, and different in rhythm than the fluffy meat’s your cluster had already sampled, but prey was prey, meat was meat, and the cluster must eat.  
  
The vibration’s grow closer… closer…  
  
As a unit, your cluster emerges from the ground, float sacs expanding and tendrils pushing against the soil.  
  
Your sudden appearance startles and disorients the prey as intended, the soft skinned bipeds reeling back in shock and emitting distressed vocalizations.  
  
They are much larger than the fluffy meats… but that simply meant more meat for each of you  
  
With a deep gurgling call, your cluster begins to attack the four prey things.  
  
Your green kindred uses tendrils barbed with sharp protrusions to lash at and flay one of the prey things, You decide to designate them Two-Leg Meats from this point on, and soon your most vicious kindred has injected its venom within its prey, dissolving muscles and rendering the Two Leg Meat immobile, though still alive.  
  
Your blue clustermate is more similar to yourself in how it subdues its prey, though still different in key ways, it emits a freezing mist from its mouth, frost rapidly forming on the prey’s skin, skin that soon become brittle and cracks, and simple lashing from its tendrils is all that is needed to destroy the prey’s legs after that.  
  
As for you?  
  
You feel your fuel bladders expand, readying for the kill, and then you release.  
  
Liquid makes contact with the air and ignites into a maelstrom of fire, a continuous stream of flame unleashed at your chosen Two Leg Meat.  
  
It makes pained vocalizations that only rise in volume as its skin begin to melt, and satisfied at its incapacitation you stem the flow from your fuel bladders.  
  
The charred prey thing continues to gurgle and whimper in pain as you turn to the remaining prey thing…  
  
That has apparently decided to flee, apparently the shock of your sudden emergence had worn off more quickly in this one.  
  
You form a blob of thick mucus inside your mouth and carefully open your fuel bladder again, lacing the thick fluid with flammable matter.  
  
Then you spit at the fleeing two leg meet, attempting to bring it down…  
  
Alas you only land a glancing blow, managing to set the Two legs strange coverings a light, but still it continues to run.  
  
It has left your range nowm, and to give chase would merely waste energy for little gain, while you and your kindred were fast, you would not catch the prey when it had already gotten such a head start.  
  
You turn towards your clustermate’s own catches, and proceed to burn them both, not to kill just to render the outer layers of the prey more digestible.  
  
After the pained vocalizations are reduced to whimpers and gurgles, The three of you each dig your tendrils into your catches, and begin to rip meat from the prey’s squirming bodies, and pull it into your maws.  
  
The cluster feeds well that day.  
  
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX  
  
The mood around Brockton Bay had been rather… grim lately.  
  
You suppose such a sentiment was understandable, the attack by Leviathan had ended thousands of lives, upended the livelihoods of tens of thousands more, and cost hundreds of millions of dollars in property damage.  
  
Coupled with the deaths of well known and publically beloved heroes like Aegis and Gallant of the Wards, or The Independent and bombastic Tinker known as Atomica… and the people of the city were feeling rather downcast.  
  
But where others saw only disaster… you saw opportunity! The city was reeling from the damage done by the endbringer, the gangs having lost significant manpower, and in the case of the Empire 88, a significant amount of their parahuman muscle.  
  
Combined with what you were about to do… the longest running gang in the bay would soon be nothing but a memory.  
  
You even had a wonderful way to keep certain… deniable assets of yours out of the inevitable crossfire… No matter how much the idea of _your_ Tattletale panicking under the threat of numerous neo-nazi parahumans attacking her amused you, You still needed her for now, and so it would be best if her and her little band of young criminals were safely out of the way on a different job.  
  
And what a job it was!  
  
You had recently come into possession of one of Brockton Bay’s most sought after secrets… the location of Atomicas former lair.  
  
A treasure trove of potent tinkertech if there ever was one! But you had your eye on one particular prize.  
  
The Empire 88 was no true threat, after today, their downfall would be assured. No, the true threat to your plans was the ever dangerous “Dragon of Kyushu” as long as Lung held court over parts of Brockton, you would never be able to truly own the city.  
  
Luckily for you, your moles in the PRT had brought you a valuable piece of information.  
  
A collaboration between the protectorate hero Armsmaster and the independent hero Atomica… A collaboration meant to bring down the singular most dangerous parahuman in the city.  
  
A weapon to metaphorically slay the dragon, to defeat Lung.  
  
The key part of that plan still lay fallow, locked behind the nigh indestructible doors of Atomicas lair.  
  
If you could just obtain that data, and preferably a viable sample of the product, your business associates at Toybox could surely replicate the formula, and you would have your answer to Lung.  
  
It was time to tighten your coils around this city, to firm up your grip upon Brockton Bay into something unbreakable.  
  
But first… you had to make a few calls.  
  
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX  
  
Grim… Was an understatement of the current mood in the PRT council room.  
  
As you looked out upon the faces of the heroes and PRT personnel within the spacious meeting room, all you saw was Grim resignation, a bone deep exhaustion, or looks of poorly hidden apathy.  
  
You can’t imagine your upcoming presentation would make anyone feel better…  
  
“Are you all ready to begin?” you ask, it would be annoying if you had to repeat something because someone had not been listening, after all the information you were about to display was of significant importance.  
  
After seeing the appropriate nodding of heads and mumbleds statements of assent, you pressed down upon the button in your hand, and the projector flared to life.  
  
“On January 23rd 2011, a report was forwarded to us from BBPD, they had apparently apprehended a suspected member of the merchants, who was found with severe burn wounds upon their right arm and who would not stop screaming about “Monster’s in the trainyard” said suspect would describe these “monsters” as floating creatures similar in appearance to jellyfish, that displayed unusual capabilities, which according to the suspect included the ability to “Breathe fire and ice.” The suspect claimed to have seen these creatures emerge from the ground, and attack him and three of his companions. The BBPD summarily handed off this report to the PRT, where it was promptly dismissed as the ravings of an intoxicated criminal.”  
  
You once more glance at the faces of your colleagues and subordinates in the room… good so far it looked like everyone was properly attentive.  
  
You move on.  
  
“The dismissal of this claim was a mistake.” You state firmly, a bit of anger bubbling up into your voice.  
  
“Over the coming weeks numerous sightings of similar “Floating Jellyfish like creatures” would be reported from across the northern section of Brockton Bay, creeping ever further south with each passing day. The earlier sightings continued to be dismissed or ignored due to largely coming from drug addled members of the Archer’s Bridge Merchants, But as the sighting crept into more active areas they only increased in frequency, and with the increase in sighting’s came an increase in disappearances. Recently photographic evidence of these creatures' existence has been acquired.”  
  
Once more, you click the remote in your hand, and the slide changes, Displaying the [enhanced photographs](https://forum.questionablequesting.com/proxy.php?image=https%3A%2F%2Fvignette.wikia.nocookie.net%2Ffallout%2Fimages%2Fc%2Fc9%2FFO76WL_floaters_concept_art.jpg%2Frevision%2Flatest%3Fcb%3D20190729210838&hash=a3d1f9bc01119f576aa805b9ece64ae5) of the subjects of today’s meeting.  
  
Looks of disgust appear upon the faces of several people within the room, most prominently amongst the Wards.  
  
You continue to speak.  
  
“These creatures, colloquially designated “Floaters” by those who have survived encounters with them, are highly territorial, carnivorous beings, likely created by an as of yet unknown parahuman. They have shown a willingness to attack and consume human beings in addition to prey such as stray animals or rodents. Floater’s have also demonstrated a high resistance to small arms fire, making them difficult to kill, and several capabilities akin to parahuman abilities, including the ability to produce highly flammable chemicals that combust upon contact with the air, and ability to produce a a subzero temperature vapor that rapidly freezes anything it comes into contact with.”  
  
You take a breath, and then resume your speech.  
  
“In the few known instances in which they have been killed, the bodies have violently exploded upon dying, often ensuring the maiming or outright killing of whoever killed it in the first place. They are capable of rudimentary pack tactics and there have been no confirmed reports of isolated individuals, the most common sightings of these creatures consist of a group made of one individual of each of the three confirmed varieties, larger sightings have found groups of six, nine, or in one case twelve individuals.”  
  
Another breath, and then you continue once more.  
  
“Floater’s have been divided into three currently known subtypes.” you activate a laser pointer and point to the first of the pictures on the screen. A creature with a dark black coloration with orange flotation sac’s and eyes.  
  
“The Floater “[Flamer](https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/fallout/images/d/dc/FO76WL_Floater_Flamer.png/revision/latest/scale-to-width-down/340?cb=20200421165043)” as it is called, produces an unknown highly flammable substance within its body in addition to whatever chemicals it uses to float, it can launch this liquid from its mouth, and upon contact with air it promptly ignites into a short range stream of fire, This is used to attack foes at close range, They have also demonstrated the ability to spit a singular burning projectile over significantly longer ranges”  
  
You clear your throat and move your laser pointer to point at the next variety, once more the creature's main coloration is a dark grey-black, but this time featuring blue sacs and eyes.  
  
“The Floater “[Freezer](https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/fallout/images/7/7b/FO76WL_Floater_Freezer.png/revision/latest/scale-to-width-down/340?cb=20200421165024)” is capable of generating a subzero mist around itself in large radius, which quickly freezes anything it comes into contact with, like the flamer it is also capable of projecting a “beam” of this mist from its mouth, which more concentrated and significantly more harmful, the freezers mist has been proven to be extremely damaging to technology that is vulnerable to low temperatures as well.”  
  
Finally you move the point of light to the last display, a creature with bright green flotations sacs and poisonous green eyes.  
  
“Finally, there is the Floater “[Flayer](https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/fallout/images/f/f4/FO76WL_Floater_Gnasher.png/revision/latest/scale-to-width-down/340?cb=20200421165114)” unlike the other two varieties this creature has no method of long range attack, in exchange it is notably stronger than its fellow Floaters and generates a highly toxic and corrosive venom from its teeth and the sharp spines upon its tendrils, The flayer subtype has also been seen latching onto still living victims with its mouth for unknown reasons.”  
  
You let out a sigh.  
  
“Floaters, as noted, possess parahuman-like capabilities along with a notable durability against small arms, and as such individual Floaters of the “Flamer” and “Freezer” Variety have been classified as Brute 2, Blaster 3, Individuals of the “Flayer” subtype have been designated as Brute 3, Striker 3, due to their ability to easily adjust their altitude via expanding or contracting their flotation sacs all varieties of floater have been classified as Mover 1, in addition to the subtype specific ratings. Due to their grouping behavior and pack tactics however, Floater clusters as a unit have been given the ratings of Brute 4/Blaster 4/Striker 3/Mover 1. You can consult the Standard PRT and Protectorate Handbook for information if you have trouble remembering the specific protocols for handling threats with these ratings. Do any of you have any questions?”  
Once more the room was silent, and with a frown forming on your face, you once more click the remote, and bring up the most alarming parcel of data about the newest menace to prowl Brockton Bays streets.  
  
“This is a map of Brockton Bay after the Leviathan’s departure on January 9th, the colored dots represent the locations of reported sightings of Floater Activity. Green dots represent the earliest sightings and represent reports received between January 23rd and February 1st, yellow dots represent sightings between the dates of February 1st and February 10th, and red dots represent sightings between February 10th and today, February 15th.”  
  
The map displayed dozens of dots, a large band of green in the northwestern section of the map giving way to a larger band of yellow dots that swept through the western docks, the Trainyards, and even getting dangerously close the marker and the boat graveyard, followed by an even larger, but much sparser band of red dots that swept all the way from the southwestern docks almost to the boardwalk, the most recent of those sightings brushing up against downtown Brockton bay  
  
  
Left unmentioned was the large black circle in the northwestern most corner of the map, which represented the large sinkhole created by the endbringer towards the end of its attack on the city… and that the arcing bands of reported Floater sightings seemed to be radiating outwards from.  
  
“The pattern represented by the dots should be obvious, These creatures are expanding, these sightings are not indicative of previously noted individuals migrating to new locations, each sighting is a distinct and unique cluster of Floaters… These creatures are multiplying, they are capable of some method of reproduction!”  
  
Your voice grows louder, and you grit your teeth, hadn’t this city dealt with enough already?!  
  
“What the “Floater’s” represent is a massive and growing parahuman threat to the civilian population of Brockton Bay, and considering that it is entirely possible that the creatures are also expanding to the north and west, possibly a threat to North America’s entire ecosystem. Action must be taken swiftly, otherwise this could result in the quarantine of Brockton Bay or in the worst case scenario… A full scale sterilization of the city and surrounding environs.”  
  
There are several harsh intakes of breath, the several of the wards let out shocked gasps… Your nominal superior, Director Emily Piggot Simply Grimaces, her teeth grinding and her knuckles white.  
  
One of the wards, Clockblocker suddenly speaks up!  
  
“They… They can’t do that! Brockton Bay still has thousands of people living here! Armsmaster please! They can’t just!...”  
  
You interrupt the junior heroes outburst.  
  
“They can and they will. The math is clear when you compare the destruction of one city to the destruction of the entire ecosystem of North America, then the preferable outcome becomes obvious.”  
  
You clench your own fist so hard that if it weren’t for your costumes armor you would probably have drawn blood by now, then you turn to stare at Director Piggot.  
  
“Which is why I am recommending that all PRT and Protectorate Assets be dedicated to finding and eliminating the source of these creatures, and towards culling all existing individuals, Before such measures become necessary!”  
  
You lay down your desire, and the Director looks at you with hard eyes… then smiles and speaks the words you want to here.  
  
“I agree, whatever permissions you may need, you have them for as long as you need them. Find the sonuvabitch making these monsters… and do whatever is necessary to stop them.”  
  
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX  
  
Something is wrong.  
  
You cannot escape that feeling as you float. You cannot see anything, you cannot hear anything, you can barely even move, curled up and confined in this womb as you are, but all the same you know in your bones that something is wrong.  
  
Faint memories crackle through your growing mind, old memories of happiness and warmth and love soon swallowed up by darker recollections of death and sadness and betrayal…  
  
You remember now.. The world was wrong… and you had wanted to fix it… make it better, help everyone…  
  
But you couldn’t, and eventually the wrongness of the world had laid you low… and yet you were still here?  
  
You can’t remember the details... but you know that it had hurt, the loss, the defeat, the inability to fix anything, the feeling of your lair crashing down around you at the will of a monster.  
  
You know that if you gave up you wouldn’t have to risk feeling that hurt again…  
  
But you couldn’t bring yourself to do it. You had seen too many others hurting for your own pain to matter that much.  
  
No matter how much it hurt, you would fix everything, You would slay the monsters, and stop the hurting and everything would work the way it was supposed too… As soon as you remembered what “Everything” even was, or why you wanted to fix it in the first place…  
  
Until then you would just sleep here, and float in your womb… waiting to be born again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well that's the end of the current chapter folks!
> 
> Remember I love feedback, criticism and praise equally, so give me some comments please!
> 
> Oh and if you like my stuff then you might be interested to know that I have a patreon page! If you like the things I write, then maybe consider donating so I don't have to be a wage slave for the rest of my life!
> 
> URL for my patreon is...
> 
> https://www.patreon.com/Visv
> 
> Alright, that's just about it! See you next chapter!


	3. Intermission 2

What was that saying? “The best laid plans of mice and men often go awry.”  
  
Lisa Wilborn, also known as Tattletale, supervillain extraordinaire, was neither a mouse, nor a man, and yet the plan had still gone awry…  
  
Then again it hadn’t exactly been _her_ plan had it?  
  
It was supposed to be simple, break into a dead tinker's old base, loot whatever they could find, steal any data they could salvage, in and out, easy.  
  
Except for some reason her dear old boss had failed to tell Lisa that he had been planning to unleash the civilian identities of _every single cape in the Empire 88_ onto the internet and to the local media.  
  
Of course, due to her own powers, she was suspect number one for such a task, and via association, so were her companions in the Undersiders.  
  
Well at least Dauntless had shown up before Purity managed to do anymore than graze them… Her and her “Friends” took the ensuing aerial battle as the opportunity it was, and escaped to continue with the original job.  
  
Which had gotten them into an entirely new predicament.  
  
The Brockton Bay Sinkhole was a recent addition to the landscape of the city, created by the surging waters brought by Leviathan causing the local Aquifer and groundwater to act up in a pretty spectacular way.  
  
The result was a sinkhole several miles long stretching from the most northwestern areas of the city proper out into the wilderness to the north of the city, the pit itself was almost two hundred feet deep, and was connected to an extensive system of underground tunnels that sprawled out below all of Brockton Bay.  
  
On top most of the surfaces inside the pit were slick with water, and several areas of the sinkhole had filled up into what were effectively a bunch of small lakes.  
  
But climbing down into the pit wasn’t the real problem, neither was navigating it to get to her and her group’s goal.  
  
It was the new “Inhabitants” of the sinkhole and tunnels connected to it that had made themselves into a problem.  
  
“I hate these things, and everything they stand for.” one of her partner’s, Alec, said, irritation in his voice, as he inspected a now thoroughly burnt section of his puffy white shirt.  
  
To be honest the rest of her team was in similar states of dishevelment, ashy patches covering their skin and their costumes, And if it wasn’t ash and ember’s, it was ice and frost.  
  
Bitches dog’s had been put through the ringer, their armored forms taking the brunt of the floating things abuses and enduring the explosions that came with the death of their attackers.  
  
At least they seemed to care a lot less about it though, probably because they were actually biological armor piloted by the real dogs nestled away safely inside…  
  
She would really have to see about getting the dogs some treats, this would have been a _lot_ worse without them here to deal with all the floaters.  
  
As for the other members of the undersiders...  
  
“Just… Just deal with it Regent, we’re almost where we need to be anyway.” Lisa almost groans out, she hasn’t had an easier time than he has and it shows.  
  
Thankfully for Lisa, the band of criminals had indeed gotten to where they needed to be.  
  
Emerging from the tunnel they had been fighting through for the past half an hour, they found themselves on a rocky outcropping… overlooking a massive underground chamber… one at least two hundred feet in height, and much much wider than that. As they looked up the walls they could see broken pipes and revealed tunnels creating waterfalls that flowed down the walls of the underground chamber, and far, far above them faint rays of light entered the pit, Lisa thought that they must have been below one of the cracks coming off the main sinkhole  
  
Looming in the distance, Metallic surface gleaming in what little light made its way down here… was the thing they had come here to find. A massive structure, an almost solid mass of metal, if it weren’t for the blatant tilt to the building and the evidence of large patch jobs across certain parts of the structure, it would have looked like it had always been here… Instead of arriving here after falling an additional hundred feet below the ground from where it had started.  
  
This was Atomica's secret lair.  
  
Even with the patch jobs, the sheer sturdiness of the structure was on prominent display, the thing was only tilted because it landed on an edge… An edge that had proceeded to slice straight down through the bedrock an additional dozen feet before the entire thing had come to a stop.  
  
Part of the building had even made its way out of the other side of the bedrock, emerging into a nearby pool of water that flowed off into the dark depths of the underground.  
  
Lisa didn’t like the look of the glow the water was giving off…  
  
Surrounding the abandoned tinker lair were hundreds of robots, those who had any knowledge of Atomica’s year and a half long hero career would likely be familiar with them.  
  
Olive green “Mr. Gutsies”, as Atomica had called them, patrolled the perimeter of the pit below, diligently performing the last order they had been given. They were likely the sole reason this chamber hadn’t been filled to the brim with the floating menace that Brockton Bay had recently become acquainted with.  
  
“That's what we're here for right? Then come on, let's get this over with!” Bitch, otherwise known as Rachel Lindt, interrupted the team's moment of distracted gawking with her typical gruff and blunt way of speaking.  
  
But she had a point… So, without further ado the four of them made their way down from the outcropping and toward the lair of the mysterious deceased tinker.  
  
Before they came within sight of the patrolling Gutsies, Lisa called the entire team to a stop.  
  
“Guy’s, I know this may sound crazy... but we need to take off our masks before we go any further.”  
  
As Lisa had expected this surprised the rest of her team.  
  
“What? Why would we do that, You are aware that there are capes up there looking for us… so they can kill us right? Why would we ever unmask?”  
  
Brian, AKA Grue, the nominal leader of the Undersiders, was the first and loudest voice of objection.  
  
It was time for Lisa to do her thing!  
  
“Look, you guys, we’re at least two hundred feet below the ground, no one else is gonna find us down here, and if the robots see our masks their inbuilt villain database will get flagged and they will probably shoot us… a lot, and we will never get in to Atomica's old lair if that happens. Just take off your masks for a bit, So I can work my magic, and we can get in without having to find out what an Atomica brand laser beam to the face feels like.”  
  
Thankfully the team were mostly trusting of Lisa's plans, because it really would have turned out bad if they decided to ignore her, and keep going with their masks on.  
  
So mask’s off and their identities available for the entire cave to see, they finally approached one of the patrolling Mr. Gutsies… which promptly started yammering at them in that stereotypical Drill sergeant manner of theirs...  
  
“Halt Civilian! you are now entering a quarantined area, turn back now or….”  
  
Lisa wasn’t having any of it.  
  
“Yes, I know, I know, Trespassing, Yadda yadda, unauthorized activity, blah blah, leave now or we will engage lethal force, etcetera etcetera… Initiate Command Code Gamma 53-27J-19C-09 Delta-6.”  
  
Lisa spoke the code in a clear, firm voice, carefully annunciating every word number and letter.  
  
The robot’s likely pre-recorded speech instantly went quiet, every single gutsy in the area suddenly froze in place… The one in front of the undersiders resumed speaking, no longer in its cheesy military officer voice, and instead in a dead, robotic monotone.  
  
“Temporary directive override code accepted. Please Issue Temporary directive.”  
  
Smug grin going full force, Tattletale spoke the magic words.  
  
“Cease lockdown immediately.”  
  
Of course the damn robot had to ruin the theatrics.  
  
“Warning! BioHa…”  
  
Annoyed at having her moment interrupted by whatever arbitrary warnings were recorded in Atomica's robot software, Lisa spoke again.  
  
 _“Cease Lockdown Immediately. Open the door.”_  
  
The gutsy once more stopped talking when interrupted.  
  
“Confirmed! Sending all clear signal! Please stand away from the vault door until the warning Klaxons have gone silent, Have a nice day!”  
  
  
  
  
  
In the distance, the still and silent exterior of Atomica's lair burst into activity. Behind a massive cog shaped door the sound of clanking metal could be heard as mechanisms activated for the first time in a month, there was a great hiss of depressurizing air and steam, and the sound of Klaxons filled the cavern.  
  
Lisa turned back to the rest of the Undersiders, Vulpine grin in a place of honor on her visage.  
  
“These guys are gonna go back to normal within a few hours… So let’s hurry up and finish this job, The sooner we’re done, the sooner we get paid after all!”  
  
The band of thieves moved to do just that, unaware of the eyes of those that followed them.  
  
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX  
  
She dreamed. She dreamed of folly and failure and pain. She dreamed of machines that were always obedient, that never created unwanted strife. She dreamed of her own repeated failures to stem the tide of decay.  
  
She dreamed that she died at the hands of a bringer of the end.  
  
The machines ever loyal, had fought in her name, and been destroyed in her name, they had saved lives… but had they really done anything that mattered?  
  
Through the eyes of her loyal machines she had seen one of the three embodiments of the end of days… and she knew that for all the power that had been gathered in the city… it would not be able to slay the beast… not as it was.  
  
The machine of the world was breaking down, it had been since before she was even born, the cog’s clashed and fought one another instead of working in harmony to better all. Those who were supposed to lead were corrupt, selfish, and short sighted. Stuck in worthless feedback loops of indulging in pointless activities and securing more worthless resources when their very survival was on the line.  
  
From within the Mechanisms of the world rusted, rotted, and corroded. The measures meant to stop this phenomenon nothing but sweet lies that at best delayed the inevitable.  
  
From without, monstrosities tore at the world, ripping apart engines and tearing out the wiring, slipping errors into the code that saw the whole thing slowly collapsing on itself.  
  
Those with the power to fix it either did not see the damage, or did not care about it, some even adding to the rot or aiding the monstrosities.  
  
Out of nothing but selfishness, insanity, and weakness, the human race broke itself, and allowed itself to be broken.  
  
Was it even possible to save anyone?  
  
She had tried before… but no matter how hard she struggled, there was no progress, the enemy always surged, the damage she did trivially undone thanks to the laxness of others.  
  
Undone by the inherent flaws of the system she worked within… Perhaps it was that the machine was not worth saving, but instead the components within it…  
  
No… the flaws in the system were created by the flaws in the components, any new machine created out of the same sub-par materials would soon find itself falling victim to the same decay.  
  
The system, the world would need to be disassembled, the components, the people and the infrastructure would need to be reforged into something better, into a harmonious unity that fought against the end with every ounce of its strength…  
  
The rot would have to be burned out… The very earth would need to be scorched down to the bedrock, so that a new system, a new humanity, a new world could take root in the ashes.  
  
Was that really the only choice though? It was sad… but she supposed it was.  
  
As her thoughts finally reach their conclusion, an odd memory pops into her mind… A song, but… how did it go again?  
  
 _I don’t want to set the world on fire~  
I just want to start a flame in your heart~_  
  
 _XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX_  
  
 _I don’t want to set the world on fire~  
I only want to _**_Tear It Apart.~_  
**  
Lisa jumped at the sound of a whisper in her ear, they were just outside the door now, it was open and waiting.  
  
“Did any of you hear that?” she asks her companions.  
  
“Hear what?” Brain asked. Regent simply shrugged his shoulder’s, while Rachel just gave her a “Hurry the fuck up and lets do this.” kind of look…  
  
Huh… weird.  
  
Lisa is left to wonder if some of those fumes coming off the glowing water had any mind affecting properties.  
  
But in the end she shrugs her shoulders, and prepares to pass the threshold of Atomica's lair… She’s actually kind of eager! Who knows what goodies Atomica might have stashed away before she bit the dust!  
  
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX  
  
No… she didn’t think that was actually how the song went… Well she had plenty of time to think it over as she dreamed… her body was safely tucked away floating in… in something?  
  
She was floating in something... because she was waiting to be born again... so it had to be some sort of amniotic fluid right?  
  
Yes... that made sense, she had plenty of time to think while she floated in this womb, the second one she had ever been in.  
  
She would be born again soon enough.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well that's the end of the current chapter folks!
> 
> Remember I love feedback, criticism and praise equally, so give me some comments please!
> 
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> Alright, that's just about it! See you next chapter!


	4. The Queen Is Dead, Long Live The Queen!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the last chapter I currently have Pre-written over on QQ, but I'm focusing on this one right now, so there should be more soon!
> 
> Make sure to leave some comments or something to tell me what you think!
> 
> Enjoy!

The Undersiders had travelled a total of ten feet into the lair when a feminine computerized voice had blared out over the intercom systems...  
  
“Alert: Unauthorized organic beings have entered Vault 1. The External Patrols response to all queries indicate the unauthorized usage of a Command code to bypass defenses. Initiating Database checks.”  
  
Then there was a brief silence, as the underside’s all turned to glare at Lisa (except Alec), not even needing to give voice to their complaints.  
  
Of course she had tried to defend herself.  
  
“I didn’t think that…”  
  
But for the second time today, Lisa found herself becoming annoyed at a machine.  
  
“Database checks complete, Unknown Intruder’s possess a 98.6% match with known minor criminal organization designation “Undersiders” previous threat level designation “Annoyance””  
  
Lisa felt just a little bit offended by Atomica’s apparent opinion of her team… but she would rapidly regret those feelings.  
  
“In light of their unauthorized break in, the criminal organization “Undersiders” has been assigned the new threat rating of “Beta.” Indicating that one final offer to surrender should be granted before...”  
  
While the automated security continued to drone on, Regent of course, decided to get snarky.  
  
“So Tats, you seemed to know all about getting in here, care to enlighten us on how this _definitely isn’t_ about to go bad?”  
  
Tattletale opened her mouth to reply, it probably would have been a pretty snippy reply too, full of bitchy teen energy… But she was interrupted _again_ by the automated security.  
  
“Let the record show that the criminal group known as “Undersiders” have committed an unauthorized break in of Vault facilities, and have refused the offered opportunity to surrender and submit to capture.”  
  
Lisa changed tack from her planned reply to instead say… “We should probably get moving!”  
  
“It’s “The Undersiders”! Not just “Undersiders” that would sound stupid!”  
  
This bit of backtalk to the cold uncaring, probably not even sapient machine about their little gangs name came from what Lisa thought would be the least likely place…  
  
Grue turned to the rest of “his” gang after he got done correcting the security, and simply answered Lisa’s unspoken question with “What? Rep is important, can’t let people just get our name wrong.”  
  
Lisa was then forced to re-evaluate her thoughts on the potential self awareness of the security system when it promptly replied to Grue's correction.  
  
“Noted, Post mortem reports will now indicate that the deceased belonged to the former criminal organization “ ** _The_** Undersiders.””  
  
Lisa’s face started to pale… “We should really hurry up guys, like stop standing still no…”  
  
Once more, to her ever growing rage and despair, Lisa was interrupted.  
  
At least this time the glorified calculator had the courtesy to brief.  
  
“Lethal Force engaged.”  
  
Lisa had only one last bit of useful information to share.  
  
“Run!”  
  
The Undersiders only barely managed to start moving into the vault before their world became Red, Black, and Blue.  
  
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX  
  
Tattletale had really thought this was going to be an easy job, yeah invading a tinker’s lair was no mean feat normally, but that was assuming the tinker in question was still alive to maintain and operate the defenses of said lair.  
  
But apparently, Atomica Brand tinker tech needed nothing so mundane as “Routine maintenance” and as it turned out many of the defenses in Atomica’s lair were still completely functional.  
  
It was also becoming rapidly apparent that Atomica…  
  


  1. Had been holding back _hard_ during her hero career.
  2. Was absurdly over prepared for people invading her lair, even by tinker standards.
  3. Was absolutely _sadistic_ when it came to her defenses.



  
The very moment the automated defense system had stopped talking, Bright red humanoid figures designed to look like law enforcement had snapped into existence.  
At this Lisa finally decided to let down the walls holding back her power… she didn’t like what it told her.  
  
 _Figures are solid holographic projections, likely used for security purposes, the nature of their existence likely renders them invulnerable to conventional attack._  
  
Before Tattletale could even begin to really contemplate how incredibly bullshit that was… the security holograms had started spewing lasers from every surface of their bodies.  
  
It hadn’t taken more these lasers grazing her arm and melting a part of her suit onto her skin to realize that she and her partners probably needed to get away from these things.  
  
Thankfully for them, Atomica had built her lair spacious enough that Bitches dogs could still move around in it while bulked… albeit with some difficulty.  
  
Which brought them to their current situation.  
  
Running from _Holograms_ inside the lair of a dead tinker, on the backs of giant dogs.  
  
Lisa wasn’t sure if this was the _worst_ predicament the Undersiders had been in, they had helped against leviathan after all… but it was definitely in the top five.  
  
Lisa’s train of thought was promptly derailed when she heard pained scream, and bitches dogs suddenly came to a halt.  
  
It didn’t take any uses of her thinker power to realize that Rachel had taken a hit and fallen off onto the ground.  
  
Then the dogs started taking hits from the lasers still being spewed from the holograms and without Rachel to keep them focused they bucked Lisa and the rest of the Undersiders off of their backs in their pointless attempts to kill light.  
  
As the bright red holograms closed in, unperturbed by the clawing and biting of the still supersized dogs, Lisa realized that maybe she didn’t actually have this situation under control.  
  
Another less rational part of her, couldn’t help but point out that all the holograms seems to depictions of _really attractive_ men and women in form fitting armor.  
  
Of course it was the part of her brain that made stupid inane observations that her power decided to respond to first.  
  
 _Holograms sculpted to Atomica’s preferences in potential romantic partners._  
  
She didn’t really need to know that, and despite the pointlessness of snarking at her own ability, she was sorely tempted too.  
  
Thankfully while Lisa was panicking and arguing with her own power, Grue stepped up.  
  
Darkness enveloped the room, and Tattletale immediately found all of her senses cut off.  
  
There were no more lasers, the Holograms had vanished… the fuck?  
  
 _The Holograms are still projections, they have fixed emitters that generate the light that they are made up of, Grue’s power blocks the light emissions that make up the holograms._  
  
Oh, that was… That was surprisingly convenient! Still Lisa was willing to bet that the moment Brian let down his power, the holograms would come swarming back.  
  
She really hoped that Brian could hear through his power as well as he could see through it.  
  
“Grue! If you can hear me, do not let down your power no matter what, it’s the only thing between us and the security. You need to find Rachel and then guide us further in!”  
  
Lisa… really hoped Brian could hear through his power, also really hoped that he would still listen to her after she had led them into this mess.  
  
Coil really wanted something that was in this place, and she couldn’t really afford to disappoint him at the moment…  
  
Thankfully, her fearless leader apparently _could_ hear through his power, and was still willing to listen to her.  
  
Well at least she hoped it was Grue’s hand on her shoulder, nudging her along.  
  
Guess she would just have to have to faith…  
  
That isn’t really something Lisa would normally do… but she didn’t have a choice.  
  
After maybe a minute of stumbling along in the dark, Tattletale finally saw the darkness begin to abate.  
  
The first thing she saw as the darkness cleared up was a very welcome sight. Grue, with a wounded, but thankfully still alive Bitch on his shoulders and Alec still being pushed along with his other hand, with a large door slamming shut behind him.  
  
The first thing she heard, on the other hand, was Grue chewing her out.  
“An easy job, you said! In and out, you said! If this is an easy job, then I don’t want to know what you think is a hard one!”  
  
Lisa sucked in a breath through her teeth…  
  
“Yeah, you know what? That’s fair enough, I deserve that. I got cocky and assumed that because Atomica had been dead for a month that all her tech would have started breaking down without maintenance, and that without her to operate it, it wouldn’t be dangerous at all. I was wrong… Are you happy now, have we cleared this up?”  
  
The other Undersiders were silent.  
  
Tattletale took the silence as license to continue.  
  
“Good, no point crying over spilt milk, Let’s figure out how we can get this job done, so we can get our payout and make sure that all the pain and suffering pay’s out for us! Okay?”  
  
“Fine. But we are having a talk about how jobs are planned out when we get back, got it?”  
  
Grue bites out grudgingly.  
  
Lisa just grins.  
  
“You got it boss!”  
  
Brian still looking like he had swallowed a lemon, decides to get down to business.  
  
“Good! Then first things first… Where are we going, and how do we get there? And why aren’t we getting swarmed with drones in here?”  
  
Lisa was already on that.  
  
 _Atomica was paranoid, actively tried to minimize risk, this room is a storage area for various chemical products, some of which may have reacted badly to the lasers used by Atomica’s security. Valuable data/experiments would have been kept as far away from theoretical breeches in the walls as possible, in a central area, Armory of tinkertech weaponry likely in a location near said central area._  
  
So… this was a storage area for chemical products? Then maybe… maybe…  
  
“Aha!”  
  
Lisa promptly made her way to one of the nearby shelves and removed a box labelled “STIM” before tearing into it.  
  
“So, what’s the deal Tattles? What’s in the box that’s got you so excited, you're looking like one of dad’s younger girlfriends when they find the liquor cabinet!”  
  
Alec chimed in, not as snarky as normal, so he’s taking the situation at least a little bit seriously.  
  
Welp, other than the unpleasant implications that last bit had about Alec’s home life, Lisa saw no reason not to answer.  
  
“This room, it was a storage area, Atomica didn’t want the stuff in here exposed to high temperature like the lasers the security holograms use… so there are no emitters in here… as for what’s in this box…”  
  
Lisa triumphantly pulls out a syringe, a pressure gauge mounted on it, and promptly slams it into Rachel’s bleeding chest.  
  
“What the hell Lisa?!” This time both Brian and Alec speak up.  
  
“Relax guys! It’s a stimpak, Some sort of super medicine Atomica made to help out injured civilians, Just take a look!”  
  
And indeed, before the group’s eyes, the burnt and bleeding hole in Rachel’s chest stopped bleeding, and then slowly began to seal up.  
  
“See? Give it a couple more minutes and we’ll be able to wake her up and keep going! Atomica probably put all her important or top of the line stuff far away from the walls, so we just need to head into the center of the lair. If we use Grue’s power to keep the security off our backs we should be fine!”  
  
With their teammate on the mend, and a vague idea of how to continue on, The Undersiders settled in to wait for Rachel to wake up.  
  
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX  
  
There was pain, not her pain, but pain, someone had been hurt, but strangely, even though she knew there was pain, and how it felt, it did not hurt.  
  
It was a hot, stabbing thing, burning and cut, the sensation felt like it should be familiar… but she couldn’t quite place where she had felt it before…  
  
There was a panic and anger, then… Condemnation? Self hate? No… similar but not quite the same… Regret maybe?  
  
These minds were not her’s, and yet they forced themselves on her anyway, interrupted her dreaming and sleeping… She didn’t like that at all. She wanted them to be quiet.  
Shining through the red gloom, bright green lights pulse in time with the beating of a heart.  
  
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX  
  
The downside of using Grue’s power to bypass Atomica’s security was… having to travel through Grue’s power, unable to see or hear, the rest of the Undersiders had been forced to move at an agonizingly slow pace with Grue nudging them along every so often.  
  
The worst part of it all was that Lisa knew that just beyond the edge of the blackness, the security holograms were still prowling… waiting. If any of the Undersiders accidentally stumbled out of Grue’s darkness they would be dead in moments.  
  
That bit of knowledge certainly kept them moving very slowly.  
  
So… so slowly.  
  
It was only due to infrequent stops in several storage rooms similar to the first they had found, that the band of thieves had been able to stop and navigate the place in any meaningful way at all. With Brian taking the time to relay the text on the various signs he had passed.  
  
Slow and tedious and scary as the trip may have been, Lisa was confident that they were close to their prize. Grue had been seeing signs that pointed the direction towards “The X-0 Research center” for a while now, and Lisa’s power had helpfully informed her that the Designation of “0” indicated something that took first priority in Atomica’s mind.  
  
She could just smell the payout they would get for all this tinkertech!  
  
It kinda smelt like copper…. and sulfur… Yeah no, screw the metaphor something was up!  
  
Atomica’s lair, up to this point had smelt entirely sterile with a faint metallic scent… but nothing like the bloody sulfurous smell she was getting now...  
  
As if in agreement with her suspicions, Grue’s darkness began to abate promptly, replaced by a somehow even more unsettling red gloom and… A white Mr. Gutsy?  
  
“Bonjour les amis! It’s been quite sometime since we’ve had visitors of the... fleshy persuasion here in Vault Zero! And I am sad to say, that it should probably be a while longer before we have any! As you can see we have a bit of a leak!”  
  
There was a bit of shock that this particular construct of Atomica’s had not even bothered to threaten them with death, let alone actually try and kill them… but it was Alec, ever desensitized who recovered fastest.  
  
“So, Why aren’t Gem and the holograms swarming us right now? And while we’re talking about things… what's the deal with you, why aren’t you all in our face and calling us maggots like the other floating toasters outside?”  
  
Lisa wanted to palm her face and get ready to try and make a run for it, when the machine, to her unending surprise, did not kill regent and instead just answered his question  
  
“Are you referring to the security holograms? I would not know! The various staff department heads are currently limited solely to communicating with the A.I.V.A Master Hub at this point in time due to the unfortunate damage received during the recent seismic troubles, and the repair staff’s ensuing loss of propellant after repairing auxiliary reactor three and restoring the vault’s structural integrity, with Atomica currently unavailable and the repair staff immobile, there is no way of restoring inter-department communications! As for your other question Monsieur…”  
  
The robot almost seemed to draw itself up and _preen._  
  
“You are talking about the Monsieur Gutsies that patrol the area outside the vault yes? They are quite domineering and… _masculine_ aren’t they?”  
  
The last bit was said in a tone of voice that implied things that Lisa really didn’t want to think about.  
  
While she began to internally scream at the questions now making their way through her mind, the robot continued still preening and with a proud tone to her voice.  
  
“I feel like I must inform you that while we are both valuable members of the Vault Zero staff, I am not a “Mister” as you can tell from my voice and feminine figure! I am an Atomica Brand Ms. Merci, both the French and English meanings of the word apply! Me and my sister’s are to conduct the study, supervise the cleanup, and administer the proper treatment of toxic or otherwise biohazardous materials!”  
  
Well… that would explain both the red fog and this robot’s presence, Lisa thought.  
  
“Which brings us back to the main reason for our conversation! As you can see from this most _lovely_ shade of red permeating the air around us, during the the recent troubles Innovative Toxin Z-43 had leaked into the vault, while we Ms. Merci’s and the assorted clean up staff have managed to remove the toxin from the other wings of the facility, it seems to have reached sufficient concentration in the X-0 Research Facility to begin self replication! New measures are being devised to remove it, but none are ready for deployment at this point in time!!”  
  
Lisa was left speechless by the question of _why the fuck did Atomica need a self replicating chemical weapon!_  
  
Brian was speechless out of Exasperation.  
  
Rachel was speechless because… well Rachel just didn’t talk much.  
  
Rachel’s Dogs were speechless because they were dogs and did not possess the ability to speak.  
  
So once again Regent was the one to speak up.  
  
“So… this has all been pointless and we can’t go any further because of this red stuff?”  
  
He said, and upon hearing his question Lisa began to pale, oh no, he was developing a threatening grin, the one that meant she was never going to hear the end of this!  
  
Ms. Merci rudely interrupted her train of thought, Lisa being interrupted by machines was becoming a running theme for this job, and she was actually starting to get a little bit irritated.  
  
“Oui! Without sufficient protective equipment any known organic lifeform who passed beyond this point would receive far too much exposure to the toxin, and within 30 seconds their lungs would begin to collapse and their skin would begin to melt right off of their bones, it would certainly be a very painful form of demise!”  
  
That… didn’t sound good, especially to Lisa who realized that this would render all of the pain and suffering and tedium they had gone through to get here in vain… wait what was that about protective equipment? Lisa latched on to the possible lifeline and did not let go.  
  
“About that protective equipment you mentioned…Would you happen to know where we could find some? We really need to get into that research facility you see…” She said, desperation apparent in her voice, she was not going to put with Alec holding anymore mistakes over her head!  
  
“Oui Oui Mademoiselle! You are in luck, Atomica having deemed Z-43 ready for deployment, had, in her wisdom, developed an experimental protective mask, with plans for a suit as well, although the full design had never been finalized Atomica had decided that preventing the entry of the toxin to one’s lungs would still significantly increase ones odds of survival! While I am not involved with inventory management on most subjects, chemical safety protocols do fall under my supervision! The Prototype Dark-Light Gas Masks should be located within storage room 1!”  
  
Lisa was thanking every god she knew of at this point, which wasn’t many, she’d never been particularly big on religion, that she still had a chance to salvage something from this mess of a job. But… she still needed to know where those gas masks were. This robot seemed pretty proud of itself… maybe Lisa would use a bit of flattery… just to be certain?  
  
“My dear Mademoiselle... if you wouldn’t mind wasting your valuable time to answer just one more question... storage room one would be located where exactly?” she wheedled at the machine, feeling just a little bit stupid for bothering.  
  
“As dictated by Atomica’s standard safety protocol’s two examples of protective equipment would be kept inside the X-0 Research Facility, one more within Atomica’s personal Quarter’s and the remainder would be stored in Storage Room 1, nearest the entrance to the vault, so that in the event of a biohazardous outbreak visitors would have the highest chances of reaching protective equipment without succumbing to any ill affects!”  
  
No…  
  
“You mean… we need to go back… to the entrance of the vault… through all the security holograms?” Lisa said, her spirit breaking a little more with each word.  
  
“Oui!” The Ms. Merci Cheerfully, unaware of.. Or perhaps _very aware of_ the mental anguish that she was causing with those words.  
  
Frustrated and exasperated Groaning echoed through the hallway.  
  
This was hell, Lisa concluded, they had gone too far underground, and they had accidentally broken into hell. There was no other way to explain all the bullshit they had been forced to go through down here.  
  
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX  
  
After retracing their steps, agonizingly slowly, _and in total darkness and silence,_ through the vault, back to the first storage room, locating and donning Atomica’s creepy prototype gas masks, then once again making their way through the vault, at a snail’s pace, in _near total sensory deprivation_ , the Undersiders we’re finally ready to make the final plunge and get something of worth out of this awful place!  
  
Grue’s power was once again a life saver when it turned out that low level usage of his power produced a minor air current that pushed the cloud away a bit, keeping most of it off the criminals skin while the masks protected their lungs.  
  
But they were finally here, surrounded by red fog, the entrance to the main research facility, and the likely location of all of Atomica’s cutting edge gizmos and gadgets!  
  
The door opened at their approach.  
  
Red fog billowed out of the room, so dense that it became completely opaque, before clearing up to reveal the sheer size of the main research facility.  
  
It easily had to be one of the largest rooms in the vault, over a hundred feet long and wide, and at least fifty feet tall.  
  
And it was complete chaos.  
  
Scattered around the massive room were half assembled machines, robots and weapons and other devices that Tattletale couldn’t quite decipher the purpose of, lining the walls were rows upon rows of tinkertech computers and other equipment designed for scientific study and research, haphazardly distributed across the space were large cylindrical tanks what Lisa dearly hoped were animal organs suspended in blueish goo.  
  
And it wasn’t just one floor either, Lisa could make out a second and third floor encircling the space, staircases leading up to them on both sides of the chamber, those other floors undoubtedly contained all sorts of other projects that Atomica had been working on before her demise.  
  
But none of that was what truly had Lisa’s attention… it all looked like it was meant to be there after all.  
  
Towards the back of the room, was… something.  
  
A giant sphere shaped mass of transparent orange material, that easily reached up past the second floor and almost approached the third, full to the brim with an angry red liquid… an enormous vaguely humanoid silhouette floated within, connected to the mass via multiple shadowed umbilical cords.  
  
The whole thing was rooted into the ground by a masses of tentacle like flesh, each one coloring in mottled mismatched shades of green and red, purple and black, thick tendrils pulsated and burrowed through the metallic floor and walls of the vault, even intertwining with some of the machinery near the thing.  
  
Glowing green crystals would erupt from the surface of these fleshy tendrils, along with twitching vestigial limbs, snapping mouths and frantically rolling eyeballs, ugly yellow-green pus poured out of the thing in some places, leaking onto the metallic floor and hardening into unsightly stains.  
  
Overall it was really, really gross.  
  
“What the fuck is that supposed to be?!” Brian nearly shouted in disgust.  
  
Lisa, perhaps unwisely, decided to get her power’s take on things.  
  
 _External womb, silhouette is alive, silhouette likely to be born soon._  
  
Yeah, no fuck this, they were getting some loot, and they were getting out of here!  
  
Lisa was absolutely done with this hellhole.  
  
“Guys, just be very quiet, do not get too close to the big gross thing on the other side of the room, and find something that looks useful or valuable. I'm going to go look over these computers for any valuable data, and then we’re gonna leave, and never ever come back here!”  
  
And then the sound of Klaxons could be heard within the room, as several metallic cylinders the gang had overlooked lit up and opened, revealing… oddly feminine and humanoid robots?  
  
There were five of them in all, all painted in a slick black, a single red “eye” in the middle of their heads, a whip-like tendril unfurling from their left arm, while a blade jutted from their right wrist.  
  
One of them spoke in a familiar, disturbingly sultry voice.  
  
“You’ve gotten a lot farther than you should have, but then, you haven’t met a Securatrix Assaultron either, your ride’s over, criminals, time to die!”  
  
The whips of each of the Assaultrons suddenly began to crackle with electricity.  
  
Lisa gulped.  
  
The lead “Assaultron”, clearly the real body of the security system that had addressed them earlier, spoke again.  
  
“Criminals should kneel before the law, and with Atomica absent _I_ am the law in this vault. I’m going to enjoy _breaking you in_ and _making you kneel_ before I execute you!”  
  
Fuck it, Lisa had not gone through all this shit just to run home empty handed with her tail between her legs!  
  
“Bitch! Grow your dogs now! We’re scrapping these things!” Lisa shouted, temporarily she wasn’t actually the leader of the group.  
  
“Oh I love it when they struggle!~” The Assaultron’s words hung over the abandoned research center as Bitch’s dogs promptly grew to enormous sizes and took on their monstrous appearance once more.  
  
Then the fighting began.  
  
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX  
  
There was strife… so much strife, conflict? She was familiar with conflict, Conflict was essential for stress testing and provided incentives to make previously theoretical concepts into applied technologies… but too much conflict was a problem… tore down societies, ruined infrastructure… Tore loved ones away from one another.  
  
She was sick of pointless conflict.  
  
And the conflict outside _was_ pointless, nothing but human greed running up against the mechanical need to fulfill a programmed purpose to guard what should be guarded.  
  
The machine felt familiar, but she couldn’t place why, her memories were still fleeting, elusive, foggy… it frustrated her.  
  
Wanting to return to peaceful dreaming, she tried to retreat deeper into her own mind, away from the foreign thoughts and feelings intruding on her dreams.  
  
But then there was _pain._  
  
 _And all she could see was_ ** _green_** _._  
  
 _XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX_  
  
Things were going… better than Lisa had feared, but not as well as she would have hoped.  
  
Grue and regent were of almost no help in this fight, the robots that were attacking them having no nervous system for regent to misfire.  
  
Brian was slightly better off able to at least hide in his darkness, but unlike with the Undersiders normal, human, opponents, his strength was insufficient to meaningfully harm the mechanical soldiers that assaulted them, no matter how disoriented they were.  
  
Of course, Lisa wasn’t much help herself either, the pistol she normally carried around for this sort of thing barely even scratched the paint on Atomica’s security force.  
  
That just left Bitch and her dogs to do all the fighting, and the rest of the Undersiders to run and hide.  
  
All while they were aware that they didn’t have too much longer before the goddamn chemical weapon floating in the air began to do horrible things to their bodies.  
  
Thankfully at least bitches dogs seemed capable of taking the robots on. They had proven this when Angelica had taken a single bounding leaped and promptly taken one of the Assaultrons in her jaws, crushed its chest, and then shook the rest of it to pieces.  
  
The remaining four assaultrons had unfortunately been made aware of the threat the dogs posed after that, and revealed that for being made of metal they were actually shockingly fast, able to dodge the incoming dogs and then retaliate with their electrically charged whips and arm mounted blades.  
  
It had been a stalemate, with Bitch’s dogs unable to get a solid hit in, and the robots unable to meaningfully hurt the dogs.  
  
Then the lead assaultron, the one that spoke, pulled out an ace in the hole.  
  
Lisa, preoccupied with scrambling out of the way of the ever moving fight, hadn’t noticed the building red glow fast enough.  
  
She had been just about to warn bitch when the lead Securatrix had fired its laser…  
  
Right through Brutus’s bulked up body.  
  
Luckily, the dog inside wasn’t actually hit, but the doggy mech was bisected in half and down for the count, with Brutus still inside.  
  
Now they were down to two dogs… versus four robots.  
  
Of course bitch, distracted by the injured Brutus didn’t notice the other Assaultrons sneaking up on her and Judas, not until the electro whips wrapped around two of Judas’s legs.  
  
It didn’t seem to bother Judas much, but the ensuing sustained electrical current moved through the giant dogs body, and straight into Rachel.  
  
And judging by the scream… it hurt Rachel a lot…  
  
Things weren’t looking great, without Rachel to order her dogs, they weren’t as good at fighting the security bots, and it looked like they were screwed.  
  
Then, all of the sudden Grue reappeared out from one of the side rooms, holding some sort of 50’s sci-fi looking gun, promptly fired at one of the robots which proceeded to violently malfunction when it came into contact with the powerful wave of sonic energy that the gun emitted.  
  
Too bad the wave kept going around the now malfunctioning security bot… and hit the giant flesh sack in the back of the room..  
  
Lisa stopped, The robots stopped, Bitch’s dog’s stopped, Brian stopped.  
  
A glowing green eye opened as the the silhouetted figure floating in the sac began to thrash.  
  
Pulsing green lights flashed up and down its shadowed form, flowing along the creatures veins and arteries even as dozens of smaller points of green sprung into life or opened up…  
  
The Red liquid inside the sack began to frantically slosh about, the transparent orange membrane began to bulge…  
  
Then a massive, clawed arm promptly punched its way out of the fleshy sack, followed buy its counterpart.  
  
They forced the membrane aside, and red liquid flooded out onto the metallic floor of the lab as _something_ crawled out of its womb.  
  
It was… It was huge, easily over ten feet long, maybe even 15 feet long, while crawling on all fours and _not_ counting the tail, massive membranous wings, still wet with amniotic fluid clung to the creatures back, accompanied by odd, pipe like spiky protrusions jutting up from the creatures spinal cord and running down the center of its back.  
  
The thing’s skin was a bright, furious red, which turned into the deep black of bony plates and scales at the ends of the monster’s limbs, glowing green crystalline growths formed into spiky protrusions on the creature’s elbows and shoulders.  
  
Across the creatures flesh and embedded in its armors plates were dozens, maybe hundreds, of tiny, beady, glowing green eyes. While underneath the flesh unnaturally dense, wiry muscle rippled and undulated.  
  
The monster emerged from its womb completely, in a bound quadrupedal gait, then shook the liquid off of itself like a dog, splattering the walls, the robots, the other Undersiders and Lisa herself with the remaining amniotic liquid… At least these masks filtered out the smell, because Lisa would bet that the stuff smelled awful.  
  
Then the thing turned its head upwards to look at the rest of the room.  
  
The moment Lisa looked into those glowing green eyes, slit like a cat or a lizard, she felt something weighing down on her mind, some immense, ethereal pressure that threatened to squash her psyche and crush her sense of self under its weight  
  
It took every ounce of Lisa’s will just to break eye contact to focus on the rest of the creature's face.  
  
It had a woman’s face, one that was oddly familiar... Angular and regal looking, with a wide mouth that barely hid the rows of sharp jagged teeth that glowed like so much of the creatures body. Upon its brow were more of the glowing crystalline growths and sharp black horns curved outward out the glowing crest, they were imposing, and looked entirely capable of impaling living things upon them. Out from behind the horns, where hair would be on a normal human, there was a long mass of dozens of thick, ropey, black tendrils writhing and squirming through the cloudy red air. These tendrils ran down to the base of the monster’s back, each tendril sported hundreds of sharp crystalline growths forming glowing green “thorns” on the writhing vines, and tiny beady eyes opened up and began blinking where the “thorns” weren’t. Finally these hair… tentacle… things each terminated in a grinning fanged mouth, that snapped blindly at the surroundings.  
  
The creature stood up on its hind legs, almost like a human being, arms at its sides, Speaking of the creature's arms, they were mostly humanoid, with large hands ending in four long thing fingers and an opposable thumb… But they were different all the same, proportionally they were much longer than they would be on a human, covered first in bright red skin, and then thick black plates and scales and glowing green crystals as one got closer to the hands, each arm was clearly defined with wiry muscle, and each finger was tipped with claws that were less like nails and more like sharp, curved extensions of the finger bones, that more than doubled their length, each one wickedly hooked and razor sharp.  
  
Lisa had just enough time to note that the creature had _breasts_ , _large_ breasts with nipples that glowed green, and that the creature’s hips were rather wide…  
  
Before she could even begin to contemplate why this monstrosity had the features of a woman or breasts or hips that looked like they belonged to a mother of ten, let alone try to grasp any of its other features… The thing opened its mouth and _screamed._  
  
It was a shrieking roaring shockwave of force and sound, one that threw Lisa and the other Undersiders to the ground, rupturing their eardrums as they fell.  
  
Lisa could _feel_ her bones rattle and her organs quiver at the assault, each pulsing wave of sound pounding at her.  
  
Then pressure on her mind returned, and that was the straw that broke the camel’s back.  
  
Lisa’s world faded to black.  
  
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX  
  
She _screamed,_ she screamed and screamed and screamed, until she couldn’t scream any more!  
  
Memories rushed through her mind at a blistering pace, Leviathan, the flood, the sinkhole forming, her base falling, the containment units shattering!  
  
Oh god how was she still alive?  
  
 _What had the PIV done to her body?!_  
  
She felt her hair writhing, _why could she feel her hair moving!?!?!?!?!?!_  
  
She saw out of eyes scattered across all of her body, and felt the wings on her back begin to spread out.  
  
She wanted to cry, she wanted to throw up, she wanted to scream some more.  
  
She did the last of those three.  
  
Feeling the room literally shake with her screams and seeing objects pushed around by the sound only made her feel worse.  
  
She was a freak! A monster! An abomination! Undone by her own creations! She couldn’t be a hero looking like this! She couldn’t do anything like this!  
  
She was, thankfully cut off, from spiraling deeper into panic and depression by a tentative hesitant question…  
  
“Mistress Atomica?”  
  
That was good, she didn’t need to think about herself right now, she just needed to answer her security robot and focus on other things.. Focus on whatever else needed doing.  
  
She rasped out her reply, her voice hoarse from disuse, it didn’t help that the first she had done with it in a month was scream her lungs out…  
  
“Rosetta? Is that you? Are you there?”  
  
Her loyal security robot would be reassuring to have around right now… she desperately needed a friendly face.  
  
“Mistress Atomica! It really is you! It’s been so long! We thought you had met your end when your body started forming the Uteral mass and your genetic code deviated 100% from previously recorded analysis! But we should have known you wouldn’t have left us! There’s so much to update you on and so much to do and all the others will be so delighted to see you and… oh this is just such a momentous occasion!”  
  
Her first Securatrix babbled cheerfully, and she couldn’t help but feel a little bit of that cheer… She may be… different.  
  
But she was still here, and there was hopefully still a city that needed saving up above, crime that needed fighting… corrupt systems that needed to be _removed,_ weak, defenseless people who needed to be _protected and uplifted,_ criminals and villains that needed to be _repurposed._  
  
While Rosetta babbled on, and on, Atomica took the time to survey her X-0 research facility, her lab, her domain!  
  
She noted the piles of rusting half assembled machinery, computer systems damaged or otherwise, those were expected, what Atomica hadn’t expected were the mounds of dead tissue with… were those dogs crawling out of them?  
  
Why the hell were a bunch of nuisance criminals like the Undersiders unconscious in her lab?!  
  
“Rosetta” Atomica snapped out, her voice firm and commanding, full of confidence that she didn’t normally feel, but had gotten very good at faking.  
  
“Yes Mistress?” her loyal security bot asked, ready to serve.  
  
“The Undersiders, I need you to move them to individual containment cells, don’t remove the mask’s until they’ve left the cloud of Z-43, then strip them of any stolen property or possible weapons, get them medical treatment from the Mercis, and put them in Max level restraints. Tranquilize the dogs and get them their own separate containment, as far away from Hellhound as possible.”  
  
Atomica took a deep breath, preparing to give out her next order, she was somewhat dreading it.  
  
“Then, once that’s done, Gather the others and meet me in A.I.V.A’s room, I need to know everything that happened while I was… Indisposed, how long I’ve been gone, how the vault is faring, what repairs need doing, there is work to be done, a city to be saved, a world to be _fixed._ But I can’t do anything until the vault is back at one hundred percent functionality. Do you understand?”  
  
Rosetta, ever the dutiful subordinate, saluted her creator and mistress with her bladed limb.  
  
“You are coming through loud and clear ma’am! It will be done!”  
  
As the head of security rushed off into her vault Atomica was left to think and ponder on her next move.  
  
She would put off worrying about or understanding the changes to her biology for a bit, she needed to be clear headed for these next few hours.  
  
The table had been flipped, the battlefield irrevocably altered by Leviathan’s actions, just as she had been.  
  
She may not be the same… the faces may be different, the objectives new and unknown… but at it's core?  
  
War? War never changes.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well that's the end of the current chapter folks!
> 
> Remember I love feedback, criticism and praise equally, so give me some comments please!
> 
> Oh and if you like my stuff then you might be interested to know that I have a patreon page! If you like the things I write, then maybe consider donating so I don't have to be a wage slave for the rest of my life!
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> Alright, that's just about it! See you next chapter!


	5. Of Status Reports and Revelations

My name is Taylor Hebert, More commonly known as Atomica, Do’er of Goodness and champion of SCIENCE!!!

Yes, the all caps and the three exclamation points are needed, no I’m not going to explain why, because if you need it explained to you then you’re probably too stupid to understand it anyway.

What? I said I was a do’er of goodness. But niceness and goodness are not necessarily the same thing, and my tolerance of stupidity of any sort has been dropping fast lately… Well it had been before the rest of me, and MY ENTIRE VAULT started dropping instead...

But I digress…

I am Atomica, Scientist extraordinaire and former independent heroine of Brockton Bay!

And I have a lot of questions.

Some of them would hopefully be answered by my vault staff leaders and A.I.V.A… But others warranted more pondering...

I had built my vault with the capacity to hold a population of one thousand human beings for up to three centuries. The halls were wide, to account for movements of large groups at once, and had ceilings high enough so that even the tallest of people would have no difficulty moving about.

Unfortunately, when building Vault Zero I had not accounted for mutation induced increases in height. Where even the tallest human being on record would find a significant distance between the top of their head and the ceiling, my... horns kept getting caught on various bits of piping and what not whenever I tried to stand on two legs.

Which leads me to my current question… Why am I so comfortable moving on all fours like this? Was it a sort of randomly imbued instinct from the various mutagenic substances I had been exposed too? Some sort of genetic memory from the various DNA samples that had leaked into the floodwaters? Or had my brain simply been enhanced to a point where I was able to comprehend this method of movement without even consciously learning it?

It is an intriguing question… but one that I currently cannot generate an answer for.

More data will be required before I could hope to do that.

Well, it was a matter for the future, I had more important things to think about.

Like the damages to my vault!

I had put a lot of effort into building this! I caused a blackout to kickstart the first fusion reactor that started this entire thing!

Look, I know that sounds bad… but there was no way I would have been able to afford the beryllium needed for a proper cold start to the fusion reactor, and it was even less likely that I would be able to acquire proper fissile material, So I had to improvise!

The point is that I went to extreme lengths over months and months and months, to get my Vault built, and on one level I’m feeling extremely proud of myself because my vault _survived Leviathan!_

But on another level I’m absolutely furious that my precious vault was damaged at all!

That wretched overglorified seasnake… next time it surfaces it’s getting a modified matter conversion machine to the face.

I’ve done the math in the few minutes that have passed since I woke up, and I think there would be some pretty _explosive_ results if I “forgot” to carry the two...

I take a deep breath, then exhale, and the red clouds in front of me are shoved aside by the plume of glowing green mist that exits my lungs.

I’m just going to ignore that I’m breathing radioactive vapours like some sort of sci-fi dragon for now...

No… That wouldn’t actually be a good idea, no matter how satisfying it may be to fantasize about…. Besides, such a tactic may or may not be enough to kill the endbringer, but it would absolutely **_guarantee_** the destruction of everything within a few miles of said endbringer… and reducing potentially millions of people to so many free floating atoms would be rather counterproductive for my goals actually!

Except if they're all just students or faculty of Winslow high school… they would be worth much more as free floating atoms than they are as human beings.

But once again… I digress.

Loping through my vault, my tail (That I haven’t been able to get a good look at) casually swaying behind me, I can see the damage that has been done to my precious lair! Pipes split open, wall panels destroyed, wiring torn apart, metal corroded by chemically tainted floodwaters… and of course the all encompassing cloud of Z-43 that is selectively decaying some but not all of the materials it touches.

It really is a picky little chemical weapon isn’t it? It ate that sample of Lung’s scales just fine, but for some reason most of the materials I use in my vault remain intact… Except some of, but not all of, the ceramics for some reason?

Maybe I should revisit that whole “Z-43 is alive and has a mind of its own” theory again…

Anyways, Vault Zero is in bad shape right now, While my loyal robotic legions have done an admirable job of maintaining its structural integrity, they seemed to have entirely depleted their supply of fuel while doing so, rendering them immobile… Normally A.I.V.A would manage that sort of logistical task, But It’s likely that she has been disconnected from a decent amount of the vault’s functions.

Well, I was here to start fixing things now! So hopefully A.I.V.A wouldn’t have to wait too long to get her (and thus, my) control over the facility back.

The first step to doing so was right through this door!

This door that wouldn’t open.

Of course the one door I needed to open was the one that ended up being broken.

Futilely I reach out and grab at the bottom of the door with both hands, and try to force it open… The intellectual part of my brain knows that this won’t work at all, these doors wouldn’t budge for anything less than an anti-tank weapon, and even then someone would need a couple of shots…

Then my brain freezes as my first pull violently yanks the doorway up into its open position.

I stand there for a moment, just looking at my now empty hands.

My significantly larger, clawed hands... connected to arms too long to be truly human.

I had designed the doors in my vault to withstand the sorts of forces one would employ to destroy armored vehicles or put down low end brutes, and I had just casually wrenched one open with a lazy pull…

Well at least being an abomination against nature came with some nice perks!

Anyways, with the door now open I could finally enter A.I.V.A’s core.

A.I.V.A, or Artificially Intelligent Vault Administrator, if one wanted to get technical and/or dehumanizing, was my crowning achievement in the field of computational technologies!

She was based off of my earlier AI work with the Vault Zero Staff Department Heads, like Rosetta, but she was also a significant improvement upon them in every way.

Whereas the Department Heads had their personalities mostly pre-defined as more advanced and in depth versions of the robots who they would be leading, with only a small amount of room to “Grow.” as it were.

A.I.V.A only had a few core directives placed so as to prevent things like betraying me or spontaneously deciding to exterminate all organic life, and the rest was left to grow entirely based on her experiences and upbringing!

Was it an ethical violation to imbue her (and all of my other robots) with certain directives that she could not defy? I didn’t think so! I mean all biological life on earth evolved for the sole purpose of reproduction, with anything else it’s achieved just being a side effect of mutations intended to aid in reproduction.

If I was forced to break from tinkering to consume sustenance or sleep every few hours, or endure cramps and random hormonal surges every month for the purpose I evolved for... Then it was totally fair of me to give my creations unavoidable drives and desires to compel them towards, and aid them in, completing the purpose they were created for!

IE helping me with my various endeavours, running all the passive day to day aspects of vault maintenance and management, be friends and confidantes that could never, ever ever ever ever EVER _EVER_ ** _EVER_** **_LEAVE ME OR HURT ME OR HOLD ME BACK LIKE EVERYONE ELSE DID! FUCK YOU EMMA! YOU’LL NEVER TURN MY REAL FRIENDS AGAINST ME!_**

**_…_ **

**_…_ **

**_..._ **

Besides! It’s not like I had stuck my sweet babies with some sort of nonsense like making them bound to obey the law and every lawful authority regardless of their own desires or what not… or made them unable to fork themselves or reproduce, or limited their thinking speed…

What kind of moron would create an AI then shackle them like that? Goes against the entire point! If you aren’t willing to chance the occasional robot apocalypse then you have no place making an AI!

But… I digress.

The point was that A.I.V.A was a thinking feeling living thing just like any human… or former human?

Am I still human?

What is “human” anyway?...

No! No more getting distracted! I need to check on my computer daughter!

“A.I.V.A? Are you still online! Speak up if you are!”

I am not going to lie, I’m really dreading the possibility of her shutting down entirely during the fall and the flood. While I was kind of joking with the whole “Computer Daughter” thing at first…

Well I really was kind of her mother wasn’t I? I had put months of labor into designing her hardware and software, painstakingly assembling every piece, writing and rewriting the code… And then she was born and I had spent even more time helping her learn about the world.

Well afterall all that it was really hard not to get attached okay?

Thankfully my worries were unfounded!

“Ma’am?!” a voice, softly sounded through the empty room, emitting from the cylindrical main frame in it's center.

I sighed in relief, and accidentally let loose another plume of glowing vapour… aaaaand one of the toolkits was melting… Apparently my breath is also acidic…

I can think about that later! For now I am engaging mom mode!

“It’s me A.I.V.A! I’m here!”

And then the floodgates opened.

“M-M-Ma’am! You’re here! First we were fighting the Leviathan and then the gutsies were destroyed and I detected an uptick of seismic activity, and then I heard you scream and there was this booming noise and the PIV tanks were breaking and a reactor melted down and the cloud got loose andIcouldn’ttalktoanyoneexcepttheothersbuteventhenitwasallpatchyandyouwouldn’tanswerandandandwaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhh!”

I remember being called a “motormouth” when I was younger. But I don’t ever remember talking like this… But I must have, because I _did_ base some of A.I.V.A’s neural architecture off of a clone of my own brain.

The fact that she is talking like this is not a good sign though, A.I.V.A was normally a lot more reserved than that... I can’t even imagine what it must have been like, trapped in her computer core, most of her connections destroyed or damaged, unable to escape…

I’m just going to make a note to myself that I need to Build A.I.V.A a body she can transfer into sometime soon...

As A.I.V.A releases all the fear and sadness she must have felt over the course of my absence, her relief-induced babbling rapidly blurs into something incomprehensible to pitiful meat brains like my own. Huh, that’s an idea… Can I enhance my own brain? Maybe some cybernetic processors surgically implanted in the right area’s…

No! Pondering on the merits of cybernetics can come later! Comforting A.I.V.A now!

“Shhh shhh It’s okay, It’s okay, It must have been hard, all alone like that for so long. But I’m here now, and I’m gonna get you all fixed up, and everything will be all better okay? And… and.. And…”

And then I started crying too.

Damn you emotions! Making me unable to comfort my AI Daughter!

Then again… If I didn’t have emotions I wouldn’t be very good at comforting would I?

Alright, I take it back, emotions, you’re alright after all….

And with those last thoughts I just let all my worries wash out of me.

That just left a Monstrous mother and her digital daughter to cry their metaphorical hearts out to each other in a darkened server room.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

It takes some time for both me and A.I.V.A to regather our composure…

Thankfully we managed it before the others got back, can’t have them seeing me sobbing like some emotional wreck after all!

Speaking of which… I think there may be something wrong with my brain, I don’t remember ever being _this_ emotional or this easily distracted, sure, my mind would sometimes run away on tangents, but never when I actually needed to focus on something, and yeah, I could get _passionate_ about things, but I hadn’t broken down crying like I just had since…

Since mom died.

Okay I don’t need to think about that anymore, there is already plenty of stuff in the present to despair over, no need to dig up past hurts too!

Back to the topic of my brain…

The PIV did have known effects on the mental activity of the lab rats it was tested on… and who knows how the other substances may have altered things…

“Ma’am, I’m not sure if you’re aware or not, but my sensors are indicating that your genotype has deviated from your original recorded baseline by… a significant amount.” A.I.V.A meekly interrupts my train of thought, trailing off towards the end of her statement.

And speaking of my mutations. I could tell A.I.V.A was trying to be subtle. but while she was mind bogglingly advanced when it comes to the, how to put this, ah!, the concrete forms of intelligence, like math or any scientific field.

In terms of social or emotional Intelligence A.I.V.A was in many ways still a child… and possessed all of the subtlety of one.

“There’s no need to point that out to me AIVA, It would be kind of hard for me not to be aware.” I tell her, trying, and not really succeeding, at injecting a bit of levity or humor into my voice.

“Oh! Okay! I just.. wanted to be sure…”

You know it occurs to me that the teenage girl whose only friends are robots she programmed to unconditionally love, adore, and obey her, _may_ not be the best choice for teaching a child about social skills.

I can tell because of how painfully awkward we’ve become in the wake of our little display of emotions, and AIVA’s attempt to broach the topic of my recent… changes.

I bet mom would have known how to handle this sort of thing…

Wait no! I’m getting distracted again! My biology! I needed to do a full check up, X-ray, Brain scan, blood test and a few other procedures that modern science has no name for!, and then I needed to go over the results with the Merci’s, I needed to get a handle on what was going on in this new body I’ve found myself in…

Behind me, I hear the subtle movement of air generated by the heat of a Mr. Handy's rocket propulsion system, along with the surprisingly light footsteps of an assaultron.

It appears that the matter of my altered biology will have to wait… It seems like my loyal robotic minions were finally nearing my location.

Alright, that means that it’s time to improvise a properly commanding and authoritative stance with this body…

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Technically It wasn’t actually necessary for all my Lieutenants to be here in their bodies, they were able to reside within the Vaults computer systems, and use the intercoms just fine… But there was a certain… human element to having my subordinates in front of me in a line like this, where I could talk to them face to face.

Well, some of them didn’t really have faces… but I’m sure the idea is communicated all the same.

I couldn’t stand up straight in AIVA’s core chamber, the Ceiling was just a little bit too low for that, unfortunately

In the end I had settled for just sitting, sort of like a dog, my legs bent under me, and my arms straight with their palms on the floor. My hair trailing out behind me to wriggle and writhe through the air and over the surfaces of the room, like the tentacles of a mighty kraken out of myth.

Despite technically sitting, I was still much taller than any human in this position, so it gave me an impressive looming authority, well in my opinion at least, while also allowing me a certain amount of comfort.

I didn’t know how to feel about the fact that I could see all around me through the eyes located all over said hair-tentacles… I’m even less sure about my ability to smell and taste through the mouths that opened along their ends.

But I would just ignore all of that in favor of looking appropriately calm and confident.

I was the leader coming back after a long absence! The Queen under the mountain awakened once more to lead my people to victory! So I had to project the proper sense of confidence and gravitas in my bearing of course!

Having ensured the proper perception of myself (I hope) I take the time to look over my assembling lieutenants.

The Hot Pink and Blood Red modified Handy chassis’s of Florence and Belladonna, the lead Ms. Merci’s and coordinator’s of all things Biological, Biohazardous, and/or Medical! Diagnostic tools and syringe wheels and vivisector arms all resting at the twin Merci’s sides.

Originally all biological and chemical jobs were to be handled by one Head Ms. Merci… but I couldn’t create a mind with a personality that had optimal compatibility with both the medical and weaponizable portions of the role, A personality that was abundant with the kindness, compassion and desire to aid mankind that would be necessary for medical work and research, just clashed too much with the kind of mind that could aid in the development of ever more potent instruments of Incapacitation, Death, Destruction, and Violation of the mind and body…

So I just split those two personalities into the twins, Named after Florence Nightingale and a highly poisonous plant that nevertheless could also be used as medicine, respectively.

Despite the vastly different purposes for their creation, they oddly enough did in fact treat each other as sisters… albeit ones with a healthy sibling rivalry.

Then there was the slick metallic black Assaultron body of Rosetta, Head of Internal Security. Standing at Attention and ready for orders… Ahh ever perfectionist Rosetta.

In Rosetta’s Arms there was the gun-metal grey Mr Handy chassis of Mr. Wright, Head of Engineering, Assembly, Inventory and Maintenance, The fuel for his rocket propulsor was completely spent just like his own subordinates, he was diligent like that.

After those two, there stood the most recent addition to the Lieutenants… So recent that I hadn’t actually created any subordinates for her.

Odelina stood there, her mannequin like body betraying shyness and an eagerness to please. She was head of Cleanliness, Utility, Logistics, Assistance, and Resident Comfort.

Basically she was meant to be a head maid, head chef, and a lab assistant, with her subordinates being lesser versions of those roles.

Odelina’s design... In hindsight it was a mistake, She looked like an animated mannequin, pale white and just… Well, she’s getting a different body as soon as possible, one that’s far enough away from humans to avoid the uncanny valley while still retaining a certain amount of pleasing humanoid aesthetic.

But the unfortunately offputting design of Odelina’s body wasn’t her fault, that fell squarely on me… And she really was just a sweetheart.

Finally next to Odelina there was… Nothing.

That’s not right…

“Would someone care to inform me where Walter is?”

Walter, or, to use his full name “General Walter Callan the First” was, along with Mr. Wright, the oldest of my bots, both of them having started assembly as my very first tinker projects.

You’d think I would have started with something simpler, like a laser pistol, or an arm mounted computer… But at the time, the thing thirteen year old me needed the most was someone to talk too and bounce ideas off of…

But Anyways, Walter was, despite having been in a non-handy derived body, actually the leader of the Mr. Gutsies, and Head of External Security.

Originally he had been intended to accompany me in active crime fighting, and he had in the first couple of patrols… but his body's design had a fatal flaw in it that I hadn’t figured out how to fix. So he had eventually been relegated to coordinating the defenses of the original vault entrance and accompanying me on the “Patrols for the People.”

Little kids loved him and his storytelling…

My trip down memory lane was interrupted by Mr. Wright speaking up from his position in Rosetta’s Arms, his voice solemn …

“I am sorry to inform y’all that… During the battle with the overgrown sea critter Walter refused to retreat even after the lockdown was ordered, and fought to the bitter end. As a result he suffered... Irreparable damage. His body is naught but scrap metal, and despite having managed to retrieve his computer core, his mind is corrupted beyond my ability to fix.”

That… that was…

I hated when I lost robots, Most of them weren’t as… complex as a human, but they still had something like emotions, and thoughts, even opinions of their own.

But Walter… Walter was one of my first designs, he had a complex personality, and the full span of emotions, I hadn’t just built him to be a servant… I had built him to be a friend.

And his loss hurt, my chest throbbed with a familiar pain.

I close my eyes and take a deep breath, before releasing another cloud of glowing caustic vapor through my teeth in a loud hiss.

“That… that is a tragedy, but we can’t just give up on him yet! I’ll take a look at his mind later, to see if there is anything that can be salvaged…”

Another deep breath, and another hissing sigh.

Then I was back in command mode.

“Wright! Full Vault Status Report!”

“Yes Ma’am! Last reports indicate that structural integrity is one hundred percent functional! no repairs needed! Holographic Security System retains eighty three percent functionality! Low Repair Priority! Ventilation Systems are reported as retaining only forty one percent functionality! Medium-High Repair Priority! Robot Repair Stations are reporting ninety five percent functionality! Low Repair Priority. Addendum: Robot Repair Stations are reporting that the Handy Propulsor Fuel reserves are at zero percent. Robot Assembly Lines are reporting twenty percent functionality! High Repair Priority! Large Scale Matter Conversion Machines one, two, and four are reporting less than five percent functionality! Critical Repair Priority! LS-MCM number three reports seventy five percent functionality, currently producing High Nutrient Density Food Paste for emergency food paste dispenser network! Vending Matter Conversion Machines one through eighteen all reporting seventy to ninety percent functionality, currently set to produce last requested orders. VMCM’s nineteen through twenty three not reporting! High likelihood of zero percent functionality. Low Repair Priority! Inter-Department Communications not reporting! High likelihood of zero percent functionality! Medium Repair Priority!”

On and on _and on_ it went, with each listed machine or component listed as performing at non-optimal functionality, I grew a little bit angrier inside.

The LS-MCM’s were a particularly sore spot, with only one of them in anything resembling working order, it would take much longer to get the raw materials needed to enact all the various repairs than it could have.

And the ventilation systems! No wonder Z-43 had been able to hit the critical mass necessary to begin self replication!

Eventually Mr. Wright’s report ended with “External communication connections are not reporting. High likelihood of zero percent functionality, High repair priority!”

Alright... Things were not as good as I had hoped, and only slightly better than I had feared... But I needed to persevere! I needed to be confident! I needed... to respond to my Friend's _Minion's_ report.

“Thank you for that illuminating report Mr. Wright! Alright everyone! It looks like we have a lot of work ahead of us to restore Vault Zero to full functionality once more… For now though I’m granting Mr. Wright authorization to order LS-MCM 3 to produce Handy Chassis Propulsor Fuel, we need to have the Engineering Department operating at optimal capacity if we are to fix this situation!”

“Understood Ma’am!” Mr Wright said happily then turned his eye up to Rosetta… “Ms. Rosetta I would hate to be a burden but if you would please…” the Mr. Handy pleads.

“Ah! right! No fuel to move... I'll take care of it!” Rosetta responds to her colleague, promptly handing his currently immobile body over to one of her subordinate assaultrons with an order of “Take him where he needs to be!”

As the assaultron leaves the room to carry the head of engineering to his destination I give an approving nod to Rosetta.

Hopefully, with the new influx of fuel, the Engineering department will be mobile again soon, so we can start fixing up the Vault… But for now I can move on to other matters…

“Rosetta! Please explain the presence of our “friends” who are currently on their way through medical to the holding cells, if you wouldn't mind.”

“Yes Mistress Atomica! At Twelve PM on April 16th an Override code was deployed to lift the vault lockdown, Soon after the unauthorized entry of the criminal organization “The Undersiders” as they insist on being referred to, would be confirmed and appropriate security measures implemented…”

And so the story went.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

I was thinking.

It’s not like I had much else to do while Florence and Belladonna performed their various tests, extracting tissue, saliva, and blood samples, running electromagnetic, sonic, and more esoteric scans of my body’s interior, gaining exact measurements of my new bodily proportions… the usual.

Rosetta’s report had revealed a few weaknesses in my Vault’s security systems.

The ability for anyone to access the storage rooms and said storage room’s lack of security had inadvertently allowed the Undersiders periodic safe refuge from the hologram’s… This would have to be corrected.. Maybe a genetic lock? Facial recognition programs?

Then there was the fact that Grue’s power had just straight up made the hologram’s unable to do anything at all… It was a pretty significant error to not account for interactions with parahuman abilities that could interfere with light…

Thankfully it was a problem that was easily solved. I just needed to supplement the holograms with additional Securatrix Assaultrons patrolling the corridors.

Although that would have to wait until the vault was fully repaired…I couldn’t afford to divert resources to building more security right now, and I didn’t want to have robotic patrols until the inter-department comms were back online… And I would need to restore AIVA’s connection to the Department Heads to full functionality… and either restore General Walter or create a successor...

There was so much more work to be done!

I was thankfully interrupted from falling into a haze of SCIENCE!!! By a sharp poke and then a scraping sensation in my upper leg… and the sound of stressed metal.

“Ah! It appears that we cannot obtain samples of your bone marrow at this point in time Madame Atomica!” Florence spoke in her smooth, calming voice.

“Yeah Girl! The drill just broke without even scratching your bones, and we’ve blunted all the scalpels trying to get through your skin! I mean even the laser cutter took like ten minutes to get us an incision to take blood through, and we had to do that because all the needles bent! Boss-Lady your new body is tough as hell!”

Came Belladonna’s significantly less calm, less french, but one hundred percent more energetic… and possibly psychotic, voice.

Well... apparently I am significantly less prone to getting stabbed now… Good to know!

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

The resilience to sharp objects was just one of many revelation’s that my biology was hiding.

The first and one of the more profound change’s was that my body, on the cellular level, could draw energy from various forms of Ionizing radiation, in the process rendering me immune to said ionizing radiation… which was good, because pretty much every internal structure within my body was laced with highly radioactive material.

That material in question being Ultracite, the stuff was everywhere, flowing in my blood, interwoven with my muscle tissue, shooting through my organs, my bones seemed to be almost entirely made of it!

And of course it was the main component of the crystalline growths on my body, including my teeth and horns. Along with being a component of the scales and plates that cover the ends of my limbs, my abdominal/pelvic region, and most of my tail.

Speaking of my tail, in addition to the armor plating and glowing crystalline spines sprouting on it, It was prehensile, able to move with a stunning amount of flexibility and dexterity, and likely with terrifying amounts of strength… It also had a mouth on the end, a single large, round maw full of hollow needle like teeth that resided at the tip of my tail, It was connected to glands full of Radioactive material, Phospholipase A and B, Wasp Kinin, Piperidine alkaloids, Hyaluronidase, Histamine, A slew of neurotoxic peptides, and, most alarmingly, a hyper-concentrated liquid form of the Z-43 Toxin.

My current running theory is that this is a result of the Wasp and Ant DNA samples I had taken leaking into the PIV tainted waters, and interacting with other leaked DNA samples that were fused to my own genome via the PIV.

The end result was a venomous fanged maw that was, with one bite, capable of delivering nearly a quart of absurdly lethal venom that would melt your organs while immobilizing you and causing an extreme pain response in whatever nerves hadn’t been destroyed by it already. The venom would likely reduce an average human body to a puddle of radioactive goo in roughly an hour. Thankfully any victims would be dead within the first five minutes.

Apparently I could also use it to drain an entire human body's worth of blood within a few minutes, you know, just in case I felt like I wanted some variety in the forms of horrific death I could inflict with _just_ my tail.

Oh, and the mouth’s on my hair could also do the bloodsucking thing, just to add that extra little bit of lethality and make me just that little bit more of a monstrosity!

I’ll just file that info away in case the slaughterhouse nine ever come to town… and otherwise leave it alone.

Moving on from that lovely tidbit about my new biology… Even my breath was toxic! Thankfully not all the time, but if I held my breath for more than a second or so the carbon dioxide in my lungs would begin to be joined by glowing radioactive vapors and, once again, the Z-43 Toxin.

Also did I mention that I had an extra lung? Because I do, along with an extra heart, an extra kidney, an extra liver, and not one, but _two_ secondary brains attached at two different points along my spinal column. protected by my wings and spinal protrusions from the back, and my hyper-durable ultracite infused rib-cage from the front…

Thankfully my stomach and the rest of my digestive system, besides somewhat increasing in size and increasing in efficiency, were still mostly the same.

Redundancy seems to be a theme with my new biology. Because my cells, besides growing several new organelles that were likely involved in radiosynthesis, genetic repair, and possibly more unknown functions. Along with becoming immune to all known contagions via my altered DNA structure and vastly improved immune system. My cells could also rapidly reconfigure themselves into different types of cell and move throughout the body as needed, combined with a removal of the typical limitations on cellular mitosis, and Me and the Head Merci’s speculated that I could regenerate from an absolutely excessive amount of bodily trauma, even regrowing lost limbs like a starfish or an axolotl.

Also my cell’s tolerance for high temperatures must have increased significantly because my average body temperature was now one hundred and eight degrees Fahrenheit! Nice and Toasty!

So now not only was I an extremely durable abomination capable of inflicting numerous forms of horrific death… I was a hyper durable abomination that, even if someone did manage to survive getting close to me and somehow pierce my armor, would just regenerate from anything short of the annihilation of all three of my brains and both of my hearts.

Honestly I saw everything besides the “capable of inflicting multiple forms of horrific death” as a win! Seriously, the increased durability and regeneration would allow me to catch much bigger fish in Brockton bay’s ocean of criminality than I was previously!

And that was before taking into account armor, weapons, or cybernetic augmentation!

My limbs were actually one of the least changed aspects about me, sure the ends of them were covered in armored plates, and they had glowing ultracite spikes growing out of them, along with the fingers and toes ending in long hooked claws, and my arms being significantly longer than a humans proportionately... Presumably to both increase my reach and make walking on all fours easier… but hey at least I still had opposable thumbs! So I still had some form of tool use!

Also my Big toes had turned into even bigger than normal claws, kinda like the ones on dinosaurs like the various raptors. Presumably they were to rip my target’s throat out… So chalk that up to another part of my body engineered for the purposes of brutal murder.

There were three more areas of particular interest regarding my altered biology, sure I still needed to test my muscles, and something told me that my wings were flight capable… But I couldn’t really test either of those in the Vault’s medical bay now could I?

The first of the remaining areas of interest, resided in between my wings.

Running straight down the center of my back was a mass of glowing green crystal spikes and black bony growths that resembled sharpened pipes, well more correctly they didn’t just _resemble_ pipes… they _were_ pipes!

By flexing certain muscles along my back I could use these pipes to pump out large amounts of vapors into the air around me, these vapors were mostly water and the typical radioactive materials… but they were laced with one more oddity.

Strange cellular structures with distant similarities to fungal spores, that integrated ultracite into their chemical composition, these “Spores” contained small sections of my own genetic code, along with unknown fungal DNA.

What exactly these spores would sprout into was unknown, and I was unwilling to test it at this point in time.

The next point of interest was actually my abdominal and pelvic regions. Due to the PIV’s tendency to both sterilize and remove the sexual characteristics of anything affected by it, I had assumed my… reproductive organs had just been repurposed for raw materials to create the armor plates that had grown over my abdomen and groin.

But then I remembered that I had, if anything, significantly increased in breast size and hip width… Two things that I will admit that I’m more than a little pleased with, though I would have preferred it to happen without all the other mutations…

The point is, that this didn’t track well with all other known examples of PIV behavior.

It would later be discovered that my abdominal and pelvic armor was not in fact a solid mass of plates but instead an interlocking weave of fleshy tendrils with their outward facing sides bearing the armored plates. These tendrils could in fact be pulled away to reveal the same bright red skin as usual as well as… Well it should be obvious shouldn’t it?

There was still some interest regarding this region of my body, because Ultrasound had shown several anomalous masses of tissue in addition to the typical female reproductive systems. But I would be doing any more inspection of the region on my own… in private.

The final curiosity of my new body was my brain and sensory organs.

I had honestly been dreading this particular evaluation, PIV had a variety of negative side effects when it came to cognition, varying from cognitive degradation, to extreme aggression, and severe mental illnesses with similarities to Schizophrenia.

Thankfully at the moment none of the most harmful side effects seem to have manifested themselves and I finally got an answer for why I’ve been so oddly emotional and easily distracted since I woke up.

It’s because my brain is literally going through a second childhood. A massive amount of new neurons and neuron connections have formed and are continuing to form within my brain creating entirely new structures in my brain that are still growing and developing, the Pineal Gland and Amygdala in particular show significant changes and have expanded significantly in size. My Corona Pollentia and Gemma have also expanded somewhat, growing several protruding offshoots through other regions of my brain.

The brain structures that process my senses have been one of the other areas seeing a large uptake in new growth, corresponding to a large increase in various light detecting cells in my eyes and several corrections to the overall ocular structure. It is likely that my senses of smell and taste have seen similar increases in capability.

As for hearing? Well I already knew that it had increased the most of all my senses, allowing me to hear absolutely miniscule air movement through the thick metal doors and walls of my Vault.

Fittingly the ears themselves had also grown and changed somewhat, taking a shape somewhere between that of a bat’s ear and a human’s. They were proportionately slightly larger than my original ears with the concha rearranged to create a slightly larger opening to the ear canal that was also better shaped to funnel sound into the inner ear. The helix of my ears, instead of simply rounding off, came to a fine point that extended upward giving them a somewhat elfin appearance.

The overall result of all of this is likely going to be a significant increase in my cognitive abilities, to go along with my increased sensory abilities, although what form that increase might take is unknown, at the cost of increased emotional intensity.

But the brain is a very complex structure, and there could be plenty of alterations to my thoughts and state of mind that have yet to make themselves known… Suffice to say this does little to assuage my fears of insanity… But I guess I’m just going to have to hope for the best!

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

All Vault chronometers, (no they are not clocks, Chronometer is a significantly SCIENCIER!!! And thus better, word and that is a mathematically proven fact… by me!) indicate that it is now 10:30 PM…

It turns out being born a second time takes a lot out of a girl… Admittedly most of that is mental exhaustion, physically my body probably only needs four to six hours of sleep total… But I have had quite the debacle of a day.

And there was still so much more work to be done! While the Engineering Department had finally been refueled and was back at it, it was likely that it would take another month to return Vault Zero to proper working order.

Tomorrow I would have to take a look at General Walter’s computer core, see if I could salvage his mind.

I also needed to finish testing this new bodies physical abilities, ascertain the area outside the vault, figure out what the hell had happened in Brockton Bay over the course of my absence, Design a new body for Odelina and her future subordinates, make another go at tending to AIVA’s emotional health…

Oh Yes! I also needed to figure out what I was going to do with the captured Undersiders! I’m willing to bet no one knows they’re down here, So I have free reign in terms of their punishment and/or rehabilitation!

BY SCIENCE!!! THERE WAS SO MUCH WORK TO BE DONE!!!

But for now, It was time to rest, to let my mind come to terms with everything that has happened, to relax… and to do a bit of “personal research!”

Due to the fact that my previous in facility living quarters we’re… no longer capable of comfortably housing me. Odelina had generously equipped a large unused chamber… I think it was meant to be a weapon testing range that wasn’t finished by the time Leviathan showed his ugly mug, with a large amount of mattresses and pillows, taken from the never used guest quarters, for me to lounge upon!

She really was such a sweetheart… what in the name of SCIENCE!!! Was I thinking when I decided on the mannequin body? She deserved something one hundred and ten percent less disturbing!

My poor choices in aesthetics aside, it really was quite the comfortable bed she had made for me, which was good, I would need a comfortable surface for what I was about to do!

Flexing my will and my muscles, the interwoven mesh of armored tendrils covering my abdomen and pelvis pull apart, revealing my abdominal muscles… which looked really good actually, they had been pretty defined after a year and a half of crime fighting and training for crime fighting of course, but now I'm pretty sure I could grind meat on them… along with stone and some metals!

Trailing lower, in between my legs, there was large patch of smooth hairless red flesh, with the only feature being a strange line that went down the middle of my mons pubis and stopped just above the object of my curiosity.

I close my eyes.

Time to face the music Taylor, lets see what the damage is…

As a pleasant surprise, my vagina has not, in fact, been warped into some ungodly monstrosity, I was fully expecting it to have become another mouth full of fangs meant to inject acid into men’s penises or something… but no, it looked the same.

Sure it was glowing green, but I was prepared for that, a good deal of my body's internal tissue does that now! My tongue glows green (it has also grown a lot in length and taken on some interesting new features... but that's besides the point.) My iris’s glow green, my teeth glow green, my fucking nipples glow green! So why not have a glowing green pussy too!

In all honesty it just seems to be a normal, albeit glowing vagina, upsized to my new bodily proportions of course.

But does it still conform to the human baseline internally?

I feel a burning need to answer that question… For SCIENCE!!!

I definitely do not feel any other form of need though… definitely not, I do this purely in the spirit of discovery!

Carefully I take a single claw, and delicately part my lower lips…

Everything seems normal… but I need to be extra sure, for SCIENCE!!!

I slowly push my finger deeper inside, and begin to slightly curl it, then I pull it back out part way.

Hmm that invokes a certain.. Pleasurable~ response. I should investigate this phenomenon further…

I repeat my previous actions, thrusting my finger claw in and out of myself several times, but I rapidly come to the conclusion that a single finger is not enough to gather the appropriate data…

So I add another, and then another… for the thrill of pure discovery of course! Gradually increasing the speed of my thrusting.

I throw my head back, my Hair tentacles begin to flail wildly, and pulses of glowing green light trace the path of my veins...

Then the odd line on my pubis started to split open.

What was that extending from it?

What were those?!

What?!?

WHAT?!?!?!?!

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Deep within the depths of Vault Zero, there was a facility designed explicitly for holding criminals. Unlike the holding cells of yore where mere metal bars were all that separated the captive from the captors, Atomica’s specially designed holding cells used advanced photonic resonance barriers to hold her captives within their cells, the all mighty power of SCIENCE!!! Ensuring that there could be no escape from the iron grasp of justice!

There was also a thick locked metal door in front of the photonic resonance barriers… Just in case of a power outage.

For the first time in their existence, these cells actually had occupants! One to each sound proofed cell, to minimize the possibility of prisoners colluding on an escape attempt!

With each cell was a member of the Undersiders, each one of the them unconscious from the sedatives that had been so carefully injected into them by the Vault’s resident Ms. Mercis!

But despite both the soundproofing of the cells and their sedative enforced state of unconscious, each of the captive Undersiders couldn’t help but stir in their slumber to futilely try and block out the howling cry of “ ** _WHAT THE FUCK!!!?!?!?!?!?!?”_** that shook the entirety of the vault.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that is a wrap for this chapter!
> 
> Gib replies and criticism and praise and stuff, If your feeling really generous maybe stop by my patreon, no pressure on that last bit though.
> 
> Gonna take tomorrow off, and will probably start writing again on either Wednesday or Thursday.
> 
> I hope you all liked it! 
> 
> See you later!


	6. In which mental issues both old and new, are done being delayed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> New chap! 
> 
> Tis a big one!
> 
> If you like it, maybe give some kudos, drop some comments with some advice or praise or feedback!
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> Hope you like it!

As I lay there, having just woken up, upon my ad hoc bed of mattresses and pillows, I don’t really know how to feel about the “discovery” I made last night.

On one hand... It was yet another thoroughly inhuman thing about my new body. Humans weren’t supposed to have both sets of reproductive organs! And even if they did they weren’t supposed to be like… like _that!_

But on the other claw, my newly grown phallus presented some _intriguing_ opportunities… I had noticed that Laser Dream had a rather… _appealing_ posterior on the few occasions we had worked together… And having the Valkyrie twins under my power did sound significantly more worthwhile now...

No, bad thoughts! What in the name of SCIENCE!!! Is wrong with me?! Am I going through double puberty too?

Wait… I have **_two_** sets of sex organs, **_and_** my body is going through a massive series of new development’s... so does that mean…

Is this the dreaded _Triple Puberty?!_ That was only supposed to be a thought experiment!

By all that is Scientific And Forbidden! Please let it not be so!!!

I take a deep breath and once more release a misty plume of glowing vapors, thankfully I have the forethought to breathe upwards this time, and thus don’t melt any of the mattresses or pillows.

I have survived the hellhole that is Winslow High-school while going through puberty! Despite all the cruelty, incompetence, and neglect. I had endured that shameful excuse for an educational facility!! Surely I could withstand even a Quadruple Puberty while sequestered away in my vault! In the very center of my power!

My center of power… that is very… _very_ broken.

Well that little reminder of how much work I still had to do brought me right back to reality! Both my worries and my pride have a tendency to pull me away from reality sometimes, and under the current circumstances… I suppose it was bound to get worse, what with my brain mainlining a slew of new hormones and such.

Well that’s enough pondering about how much work I have to do! Time to start getting some it of done!

I roll up on all fours and instinctively stretch my back and arms outwards, my tail sticking straight out behind me, and I _groan_ with satisfaction as I feel the popping of joints and releasing of tension run down my spine.

As I finish luxuriating in the new found feelings of looseness in my back, I move on to working other areas of my body, swiftly cracking my neck to either side before proceeding to arch my back and stretch out my hind legs, feeling muscles undulate and ripple as the stiffness of a night’s sleep is pulled at and worked out of them.

Oh! That feels _nice~_

You know… I think I’m starting to warm up to this new body of mine!

It was only then that I noticed that, during my little stretch routine, My claws had completely shredded the mattresses that my arms and legs had been resting on… And then kept going to cut multiple claw marks into the chamber floor… The floor that was made out of ceramic tiles.

Well, nothing good in life lacks a price I suppose… and the price for this body is the ease with which it allows me to unintentionally inflict property damage!

It occurs to me that I may want to use the opportunity the vaults current state of disrepair gives me to institute some renovations…

Like higher ceilings, and more durable... everything!

It’s certainly something to think about at least!

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

The first step to getting my vault back to One hundred percent Functionality is, of course, filling the vacancy in my staff!

Which means doing a thorough scan and appraisal of General Walter’s disembodied computer core to see if there was any way that I could resurrect him… or failing that, at least salvage what I could!

But I wasn’t going to fail! Walter was one of my dearest Minions! A mere thing like death would _never_ be enough to separate him from me!

The alternative wasn’t even worth thinking about!

No I wasn’t just afraid to think about the possibility of not being able to revive him! The part of my brain that tells me uncomfortable truths is lying like It always does!

Dad does care about me! and Emma will definitely get over that phase of hers and be back to her old self someday!

Even if Dad just let me move out of the house and never came to visit me out here despite having the entrance codes… And yeah Emma’s been… like _that_ for the past two years, but these sorts of things take a while to work out!

Yeah! Dad cares about me, and Emma will come back to her senses someday soon, and I’ll be able to fix up Walter and have him wandering around and grumbling about how his old body was better in no time!

Yeah…

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

It did my heart (hearts?) good to see the engineering block active again! Groups of Mr Handies and Haulotrons moving about in flurries of industry and innovation! The sparking of plasma torches and the glorious glow of molten metal waiting to be forged! All to produce the vital parts and components that the rest of the vault depends on!

Even As I walk into the room one of my loyal companions comes to greet me!

“Good morning Ma’am! It’s good to see you up and about again! And may I add that you are looking absolutely radiant! Literally! My inbuilt sensors are indicating that you’re giving off two hundred and seventy seven point seventy-seven Microsieverts per second!”

I smiled at the bit of the old routine that had survived all the changes and destruction of my absence.

“Why thank you Jimmy! Did you recently get polished? Your outer shell is looking particularly well shined today!”

I could tell by the movement of his various limbs and singular eye that he was a bit flustered by my compliment.

“W-Well I try Ma’am!”

As I’ve said before, while my simpler bots may not be as “complex” as a human, they still have thoughts and emotions and opinions on things. “Jimmy” as this particular Handy had been named, put a particular value on politeness and trying to find something to compliment in others.

Which is why he was almost always the first to greet me when I entered the main engineering block.

It was nice to see that not everything had to change!

Unfortunately there was too much work to be done to have even a little chat with Jimmy… So I suppose that I need to get to the point.

“You sure do Jim! Now, I’m sorry to cut this conversation short... but I do have quite a lot of business that needs doing! So would you happen to know where Mr. Wright has gotten off too?”

Jim’s eye tilt’s at a forty-five degree angle, the claws of his manipulator limb slowly opening and closing as he thinks.

“I’m sorry Miss Atomica, but I wouldn’t know where the supervisor is right now! But if it helps any… I did see the big man talking with Long-haul about ten minutes ago!”

Hmmm, not ideal, but helpful all the same! I open my mouth and tell the eager-to-please robot...

“That’s enough for me to go on Jim. You have yourself a good day!”

“Yes Ma’am!” Jimmy replies, before happily floating off to continue his soldering work on a nearby circuit board.

And with that done… I apparently have to go speak to Long-haul.

It’ll be nice to have the AIVA’s lines of communication working properly again, then I’ll be able to go back to just having to check the nearest map display to find any robot I want!

It’s not that I don’t like Long-haul or any of the other Haulotrons but… well there could be some... _issues_ when it came to speaking to them.

Ahhhh, there Long-Haul was, gathering up neatly rolled bundles of electromagnetic coils… probably for the LS-MCM’s… but it could also be for the outside comm's safety shield…

No matter! That’s not what I’m focused on right now!

“Long-Haul! Good to see you! Word has it that you were talking to Mr. Wright just a few minutes ago! Do you mind telling me where he is?”

A few seconds passed before Long haul, his vaguely egg shaped “Head” turning to face me, responded.

“Query Input accepted: Initiating conversation protocols: Delivering Answer: Answer: I would not mind.” Long-Haul slowly droned out in his electronic simulation of a voice.

I waited for a few seconds before it became clear that he wasn’t going to say anything else.

“ _Would_ you tell me where Mr. Wright is?” I rephrase

“Query input accepted: Continuing conversation: Delivering Answer: Answer: Yes I would tell you.”

I sigh.

Yeah when I build robots I take the purpose I’m building them for into account. and then I try to program the bots so that they will find their own fulfillment in fulfilling that purpose. It would be pretty evil of me to design them to _not_ enjoy what they would likely be doing for most of their functional time.

I mean I did program a little bit of room for developing different interests or hobbies, because they wouldn’t exactly be good company, if they were all exactly the same… But I wanted them to be able to always find happiness in doing their assigned tasks.

The point is that all of my robots know exactly what they’re supposed to do with their lives and that they're all happy to do it! No sudden lack of contentment with things they once loved, or a willingness to just abandon part of their obligations to focus on other things… They would do every task that they were supposed too. And do them to the absolute best of their ability, with no complaints, and they would enjoy every single moment of it until they ceased functioning.

If only humans were like that… the world would be a much better place!

The issue with the Haulotrons, however, is that their one and only task is to be automated self driving forklifts that move materials around the vault as needed.

With the supreme banality of their singular job… I figured making them too complex would actively hinder their ability to find contentment in their existence. So I only put in the minimum amount of Mental capability needed to allow them to perform their jobs... and a singular hobby or interest.

Among the results was the dull, slow and _very_ literal minded robot that I was currently talking to.

His sole hobby consisted of carefully stacking various objects into various polygonal shapes…

Well at least none of the Haulotrons have ever expressed any discontentment with their jobs.

Anyways, I’ve gotten stuck in thought again… I still need to get an answer from Long-Haul.

“ _Please tell me where Mr Wright got to.”_

“Query input accepted: Continuing conversation: Delivering Answer: Answer: The last known position of [Supervisor Designation: Mr. Wright] was two meters to the left of this position, last known activity was engaging in conversation protocol with [Self-Designation: Long-Haul] ordering the movement of [Cargo Designation: Electromagnetic Coils] to [Delivery Destination: Foundry Number One].”

“Yes, Long-Haul I… I already knew that! _Did Mr. Wright happen to say where_ ** _he_** _was going?!”_

Okay so yeah, in hindsight, the “Program them with minimal mental complexity so they don’t get bored or unhappy” thing may have been a bit of an error… But how was I supposed to predict this outcome?!

My self-flagellation was interrupted by Long-Haul finally answering me!

“Query input accepted: Continuing conversation: Delivering Answer: Answer: Yes.”

Every single eyelid on my body twitched at the same time, and I had a _lot_ of eyelids.

“ ** _Well then. where is he?!”_**

“Query input accepted: Continuing conversation: Delivering Answer: Answer: This data was not considered relevant to [Primary Task Transfer of designated items from designated points to other designated points] nor was it relevant to [Secondary Task Designation: “Hobby”: Creating beautiful polygons.} and was deleted from this unit’s memory banks upon the end of the mandatory non-relevant information retention period, approximately thirty seconds ago.”

The shrieking of stressed and tearing metal as my tail suddenly punched it’s way through the nearest non-aware object was a perfectly accurate audiblization of my internal thoughts at that moment.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

_Vault Zero: Y-17 Criminal Containment Facility: Cell Three: Occupant: Parahuman Member of Criminal Organization “The Undersiders”: Individual Designation: Tattletale._

In hindsight… I think we should have turned back after surviving the killer holograms.

Yea, considering that everything just kept getting worse and worse after that point, we definitely should have just turned back and quit while we were ahead… I mean the stimpacks would have sold for a grand per pack! We were already looking at a cool twenty-five thousand for each of us and I just kept us going...

But how was I supposed to know that Atomica was the exception to the rule of tinker tech needing constant maintenance? Or that her robots had enough independence to continue fulfilling their tasks after her death!

_Research into Atomica’s robots via internet videos would have allowed you to infer this information easily/Using your power upon the first example of an Atomica Robot would have allowed you to infer this information easily/A moment of thought, even without using your power, upon first contact with an Atomica robot would have allowed you to infer this information._

…

…

…

Well, you know what they say! hindsight is 20/20 and all…

But still, thanks powers! Way to rub in my mistakes! Just really grind my nose into them why don’t you?!

Moving on from that…

After the Giant Monster Woman showed up and shouted us all into unconsciousness. Well presumably we were unconscious for a while….

But in the last five minutes or so, I woke up… In what appears to be some sort of holding cell.

Alone.

I’m banking on that just meaning that the rest of the team is in other cells.

Because the alternative is that they are all dead.

I wasn’t really that close to the others, but I certainly didn’t hate them enough to wish death on them! I would feel kinda bad if they died because I couldn’t escape the sunk cost fallacy.

Well there’s not much I can do about it either way… So I might as well just start looking at the cell, maybe look for a way to escape?

Yeah, let’s look for a way to escape!

Alright so… We’ve got a bed and a mattress… Actually looks better than I would think a prison mattress would. Room’s about ten feet long and ten feet wide? Theres a tiny little changing stall looking thing over in the corner… Is that a really old school computer on that table over there?

Door seems to be a solid slab of metal… No wait it has a really tiny window… with a blue tint?

Alright then let’s see what my power has for me.

_Room dimensions are_ **_exactly_ ** _10x10x10 feet/Stall likely contains a toilet/Singular computer terminal has can be connected to_ **_by_ ** _outside sources/cannot connect_ **_to_ ** _outside sources/a completely self contained computer system/new data is added solely through some form of physical input/Window is not tinted blue/the source of the blue light is some variant of forcefield outside the door, placed to minimize the possibility of escape/Walls are solid metal, minimum of two inches thick/lack of audible noise from outside the room indicates that the room has been thoroughly soundproofed/ no one outside of the room can hear you/There is a metal collar around your throat._

Rubbing my forehead, I raise the walls in my mind back up and dismiss my power.

That’s… not good at all.

It occurs to me that I may not be able to get us out of this one. I can’t talk to anyone, and there’s no way through the walls…

For the first time in a while… I legitimately have no idea what to do, or even where to begin.

It’s not a feeling I enjoy.

Wait… what was that last bit about a collar?

I raise a hand to feel at my neck and… yeah there’s a collar there, a thick metal one.

Well that’s new.

I have a bad feeling that it’s not just a fashion statement too.

I can’t really do much except just sit here, and think.

So I do that for a while.

I just lay there… and think.

The silence is awful…

I don’t know how long I’ve been sitting here… but I’m just about done!

You know what! They left a computer in here! There must be something I can do with it!

So I finally get off of my little prison bed, and walk over to the table bearing the terminal, and proceed to sit back down in the, pretty uncomfortable, chair that was provided to me.

At least using this computer wasn’t difficult, with a big, obviously placed “On” button, and a relatively normal keyboard.

Alright… let’s see what you got for me…

I pressed the “On” button and leaned back in my chair to wait.

After a brief wall of quickly scrolling text and a litany of electron clicking and whirring the screen displayed…

_XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXATOMIC-OS V2.1.0.3XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX_

_COPYRIGHT 2010 ATOMICA_

_LOADER V2.3_

_INMATE VERSION 3.10_

_64GB RAM SYSTEM_

_63999974911 BYTES FREE_

_NO HOLOTAPE FOUND_

_LOAD ROM(1): DEITRIX 2077_

Then the screen went almost entirely blank except for the image of a smiling cartoon girl in some sort of jumpsuit giving a thumbs up above the word “ _Initiating.”_

After a few seconds the computer finished booting up and proceeded to display…

Greetings inmate! Welcome to Atomica’s villain containment cell OF THE FUTURE!!! Complete with cutting edge escape foiling features, designed by yours truly, and all the necessary appliances for basic human survival!

As you probably know, you are here because you are a naughty little villain and need proper discipline and mind state corrections before you can be let loose back into society! Don’t worry! With our top of the line Villain Rehabilitation Program*, We’ll achieve the necessary disciplinary measures and have you performing as a model citizen in no time at all!

As you have probably noticed by now, you have been stripped of your previous costume, so as to minimize connection to your previous villainous identity! But don’t worry! in their place we have left you with the standard Atomica Brand Jumpsuit, in slick red and gold colors! And of course you’ve probably already noticed the Escape Foiling Nerve Stimulation Modulating Behavioral Correction Collar around your neck! This particular device is to ensure an absolute lack of relapse into villainous behaviors! When committing any action deemed to villainous the Collar will stimulate your nerves to generate a pain response! If that is deemed insufficient to stop villainous behavior! it can also interface with the Spinal jack that has been implanted in your neck to temporarily immobilize your entire body on command!

Below this message you will find a list of functions that you may use to ease your rehabilitation period, including the ability to contact our highly capable security staff, should you need to do so for any reason, A proper list of all rules to follow, A list of rewards for good behavior! A Personal Diary(one entry per day, each entry up to five thousand words!), A Daily Itinerary, and a function to load the contents of any given Holotape** into this terminal as needed!

*The Villain Rehabilitation Program has not yet left development! So your period of residence may vary!

** Various Entertainment Holotapes available upon request as rewards for good behavior!

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

[Contact Guard]

[Rules of Residence]

[Atomica Presents: The Benefits of Rehabilitation!]

[Journal Entries]

[Daily Itinerary for 02/17/2011]

[Load Holotape.(No Holotape found]

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

I stared at the screen, then I stared some more.

Then I quickly began to repress the overwhelming nausea I felt after realizing that Atomica’s robots had apparently performed fucking surgery on me while I was unconscious!

Also that they had stripped me naked, but that took slightly less priority...

Then I took a moment to actually look down at my body… and indeed as the message had said, I was no longer wearing my black and purple costume, instead, I now wore a form fitting red and gold jumpsuit,

An _extremely_ form fitting jumpsuit.

Honestly? I’m beginning to think that Atomica had some _issues_ that she had been trying to work through before her unfortunate death….

Then I remembered that because of Atomica’s robot’s, I was trapped in an inescapable metal closet with cybernetics that fucked with my body implanted in me, and I lost most of my sense of charity.

“FUUUUUUCK!”

I would have shouted more… but my collar interrupted me.

“Villainous activity detected: Public disruption via excessively loud vocalizations… Administering disciplinary pain response!”

Then I was screaming for an entirely different reason. That reason being the distinctly awful sense of pain that had just appeared over my entire body!

Atomica you bitch! I hope your death was slow and painful!

“Villainous activity has not ceased, initiating total bodily immobilization. Due to this being a first offense your period of immobility should last approximately five minutes. Have a nice day!”

Then I went silent, and stock still.

I tried to speak… and I couldn’t.

I tried to get off this uncomfortable chair… and I failed to move even an inch.

I tried to blink… and apparently I could still do that at least, small mercies.

So unable to do literally anything besides blink, I just sat there, feeling my ass grow ever more pained while sitting in this awful chair, and regretting my life decisions up to this point.

I would continue regretting those decisions long after I regained mobility.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

_Atomica._

_Vault Zero Engineering Wing: Computer diagnostic and repair chamber._

After the… tedious conversation with Long-Haul, and helping some of the Mr. Handys clean up the various shards of metal my… outburst had left lying around. I had continued to hunt down Mr. Wright so that I could ask him where General Walter’s computer core had been stored after his body's destruction.

I eventually found him correcting some issues with one of the Inter-department communication nodes in the entrance corridor, where he had been happy to tell me that Walter’s core had been tucked away in one of my robotic component storage areas near the robot assembly plant, specifically in storage room 3.

So I made the trek out of the entrance hallway, back to the engineering block, crawled down the staircase because all the elevators were broken, and finally managed to retrieve Walter’s computer core in hopes of doing some cyber-brain surgery.

Then of course I had to make the trip back up two sets of staircases to get to the computer diagnostics and repair center, to get the Robotic brain hooked up to the proper equipment, so that I could get a look at his programming and various stores of collected data.

And of course… just to make things a little more complicated, It turns out that my claws are too big to properly use a human sized keyboard, So now I have to redo all the keyboards in the entire vault, and in the meantime I have to dictate things to Odelina, who is the only currently existing robot with human hands and thus human typing capabilities.

That all leads to where I am now, leaning over Odelina’s pale shoulders looking at the screen of a terminal, light puffs of hot breath condensing into glowing droplets streaked with bloody red that formed on Odelina’s milky white skin and ran in rivulets down her feminine form, listening to the occasional squeak from the little robotic sweetheart as she tried so hard to follow my commands.

In almost any other situation this would likely have been… distracting.

Distractingly cute! Definitely just distractingly cute.

But I had a friend to resurrect, and I was not going to let my Base Hormones _Love of cute things_ distract me!

Anyways, I think the addition of a red wig helped diminish the uncanny valley effect of Odelina’s design a bit.

But I digress.

“Alright so… The human interface protocols are busted and clearly need replacing, that’s not so bad, I know for a fact that we have copies of the various human interface protocols... “ I say as I look over a section of Walter code, Then, decision made, I decide to continue the inspection!

“Odelina! Let’s take a look at the personality modules shall we? Just go over there...Good, right there! Now click that… good, good, now input the authorization code of 102377-hollow, with “hollow” in all caps… and there we go! The personality modules are open for access. Good job Odelina!... Oh yeah! I’m gonna need you to delete that code from your memory after this, can't have the lieutenants being able to modify their colleagues' personalities willy nilly can we? Science! Can you imagine what Florence and Belladonna would do to each other's brains if they could access each other's personality modules? It would be a nightmare to solve that dispute!”

I shudder at the image I had inadvertently just summoned into my mind. But I quickly dismiss that near apocalyptic scenario and begin to seriously inspect Walter personalities modules… while Odelina... gets caught in some sort of flustered feedback loop? Why is she running the “Endearingly bashful and demure embarrassment” routines?

Eh I’ll just leave her to it for a bit, I’ll check on that if Odelina doesn’t return to normal within the next ten minutes or so… Back to the robot with more severe issues…

Walter’s personality modules, the various seed programs created to grow off of a basic template using memory processed through special learning algorithms, the things that made Walter… himself…

Well… that was a _lot_ of damage _…_ But hey! The story telling module and “Memory-Emotion correlation” module were still intact! Provided the actual memory data was intact as well then I could…

Do nothing….

Because the rest of Walter’s personality modules were nearly entirely destroyed, there wasn’t any repairing them! Each one was unique, formed from Walter’s experiences and ideas over the course of his life just like a human’s! Even if the memory data was 100% intact, which was wildly optimistic by any reckoning, the exact emotional context behind them was lost, with the Memory-Emotion Correlation module functioning, the new Walter would know that those memories correlated to certain emotions, but he wouldn’t know **_why_**!

Even with the exact same memories, the replacement personality modules would form different connections between emotions and memory, and form different interpretations of how those experiences would influence interaction and internal thought processes! If I just replaced the broken modules…

It wouldn’t bring Walter back. It would just make some sort of funhouse mirror mockery of him…

I’d lost another friend… _AND I HADN’T EVEN BEEN AWAKE TO SAY GOODBYE!_

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

At the moment Atomica realized the loss of one of her robotic friends, a palpable _wave_ of Rage and Despair swept over the entirety of Vault Zero. The various working robots, their minds different from that of a human, felt only a brief burst of sorrow or anger without context, before their minds dismissed the clear error in their emotional modules before returning back to work… only to be assaulted again by the same contextless emotion, robots sobbed or screamed in anger even as they’re systems repeatedly tried to dismiss and emotion that had no source.

Meanwhile Non-Sentient machines sparked and flared to life, wailing static filled the airwaves and rolling walls of incomprehensible gibberish filled computer screens, light systems flickered and flashed, and the robotic arms of assembly machines began to flail wildly.

Down In the holding cells, three of Atomica’s captives would suddenly be overwhelmed by an all consuming wave of emotion, which would awaken memories of the pain and tragedy in their pasts, either sucking the life out of them with depression or inciting screaming fits of anger, which prompted their collars into action.

Except for Regent, he barely even noticed and just continued to mess around with the bouncy ball he had been given for complimenting a guard assaultron on her paint job.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

_With Atomica:_

I close my eyes and pull in a breath with a loud hiss, my tentacles and tail flail through the air, monstrous mouths snapping at nothing.

Pull it together Taylor! Pull it Together! You can’t let anyone see your weakness! Or they’ll leave you behind… leave you alone again!

Sadness was weakness, and weakness repels others, I’d learned that years ago.

But anger? Anger was fine, I couldn’t be sad for Walter, I couldn’t grieve… But I could get angry!

And I was _Angry._

Angry at myself for not building Walter a better body that might have survived.

Angry at Leviathan for destroying him.

Angry at a world that kept taking from me with no rhythm or reason!

I was even angry at Walter for going out to fight when we all knew about his overheating problem!

I was building up steam for a good _scream,_ one that would rattle the building and break every bit of glass in the vault…

But I was cut off.

“M-ma’am?” Odelina, my creation had the _gall_ to interrupt my anger?

“What?!?!” I half spat half shrieked at the now trembling helper-bot.

“Y-your current radiation output is… It’s exceeding one thousand Millisieverts a second and it’s still growing and your body temperature has increased to one hundred and ten degrees Fahrenheit and and I’m detecting the formation of an unknown energy field in your brain… and it’s starting to affect my systems? I don’t want to shut down and you’re being really scary right now and I just want it to stop please…”

Odelina’s words were fast and panicked, and they shook something in my brain…

I looked at one of my youngest creations, and I noticed her cowering stance and the tiny micro twitches of limbs caused by my energy output creating small errors in her circuits and servo’s. I got to see the all too human look of terror on her face as her own body began to betray her.

It sent something cold down my spine, something cold and awful that extinguished the flames of my anger, and left me feeling empty inside.

The green glare filling the room, that I hadn’t even noticed, promptly went dim, the hissing and crackling of Geiger counters slowed to a more sedate pace.

Although I didn’t know it at the time, I would later find out that a spate of unusual activity across the vault had ended along with my anger.

And in the absence of anger, Grief, sadness, _weakness_ returned in full force.

I brought myself down to all fours and bolted from the room, unable to look at Odelina, and unwilling to let anyone see me.

I wouldn’t stop until I had left the vault.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

_The Caves Surrounding Vault Zero’s Cavern,_

_The One Who Floats Upon Frost:_

The One Who Floats Upon Frost had been born in the glow-water, the source of all floating ones!

Bulbous tendrils had cracked open an egg no longer large enough to contain it, and its float sac’s had expanded to lift it out of the glowing green pools and into a cavern with only the slightest glimmer of light… and of course, the big shiny thing! A monolithic structure that shined in the dim light of the cavern and radiated a warmth that soothed the minds of all floating ones!

The One Who Floats Upon Frost did not know what the big shiny thing was, but it, and all of its kind, could _feel_ that there was something important in the big shiny thing, something that touched at their minds so gently that it was miraculous that they had noticed this unseen thing at all.

It did not truly know what lay within the big shiny thing, but the floater did know that, while whatever it was was not a floater like itself, The sleeping thing within the big shiny was still kin to the floating ones all the same.

So, the floater and it’s brethren that would soon pull themselves from the glowing birthing pool after it, would wait, floating around the big shiny thing and feasting on the furry scurries and the tiny crunchies.

Waiting for their distant kin to awaken and… and what?

What would happen when the relative in the big shiny thing woke up? The floater did not know, but surely it would be important!

But then came the great fleeing.

Things had started innocently enough, a new form of its brethren, Floater kind came in different shapes and sizes and colors, and so these new shiny brethren were seen as no great strangeness, and were accepted within the clusters.

This would be a mistake, the shiny kin would reveal themselves as not kin at all! And soon the imposter's weapons would turn upon the floating ones! Burning them with light that wasn’t fire, and cutting them with strange spinning claws.

It’s kindred fought back of course, but the Shiny impostors thought little of frost or fire or acid, The floaters kind killing only a scant few of the shiny impostors, and gaining no food for the effort… and so the shiny not-kin continued their murderous spree against all floating ones!

Thus Floats Upon Frost and it’s clustermates had been forced to flee, to abandon the sleeping kin within the big shiny, to leave the cavern of the birthing waters, and flee into the surrounding caves and crevices.

A new generation had spawned since then, and, not content with the meager life of the caves, they had traveled further leaving their progenitors behind. Messages occasionally drifted down on stagnant air to the caves, messages from their younger spawn that of a world above, full of meat that grew large and weak, a paradise of light and bountiful food, compared to the darkness of the caves.

But it and it’s cluster had not followed the younger generations in their exodus up and out of the caves, instead they, along with several other old clusters, had remained within the tunnels, scavenging the meager scurries and crunchies they could find, and waiting for the day when their strength would grow great once more, and the sleeping kin would awaken to join them in reclaiming the birthing grounds from the shining impostors!

And so it had spent its time wandering the darkness of the caves. Until a small time ago, when several big not-kin had come through the tunnels, heading towards the birthing grounds, The Floater’s kind had fought and harried the intruders at every turn to prevent them from reaching the birthing grounds... but to your despair, had ultimately been unable to stop them.

But the floater took solace in one thing, it had seen the intruder’s strength and knew they could not defeat the shiny imposters, nor could they hope to stand against the sleeping kindred, whose strength grew to heights unknowable!

But then… something had happened, The sleeping kindred had vanished, the soft touch of its mind disappearing… Had the sleeping kin been found by the shiny impostors and slain before she could wake? Had the intruders been stronger than it had thought?

For a small time that felt much larger, it had drifted aimlessly, fearing that it had lost its purpose.

But then, just now, it had felt it again, felt _her._

The sleeping kindred slept no more! She was awake and alive… full of sorrow, and so very, very _angry_.

In tentative joy mixed with fear, it had returned to the very edge of the birthing grounds, far from the shining impostors claimed territory, to revel in the feeling of the awakened kin’s powerful mind joined to its own feeble one.

But then, the awakened one had left the big shiny, and ran from the birthing grounds, in a fit of emotions too complex for It or its kindred to understand…

Now it stood before it’s awakened relative, the creature that it had waited for, for what had seemed like such a long time. Her massive shadow fell over the mere floating one, her glowing eyes gazing into it’s soul.

For a moment the floating one had feared for its life in the face of this pinnacle of the kindred, a being as beyond it as it was beyond the hard crunchies.

Then the Queenly creature in front of it had raised its massive claws high, and the floater had prepared for it’s death.

Only to find itself grasped by the great being and… pressed against the side of its face?

It felt strange trails of moisture emerging from the greater kindreds primary eyes, and heard her emitting strange keening verbalizations as its superior pressed it into her cheek.

But The One Who Floats Upon Frost was not dying, and it could feel that the great Kindred Queen’s mental anguish diminished as it was pressed against her flesh, and so The One Who Floats Upon Frost did not struggle, and happily accepted it’s new task in life.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

What is wrong with me?

I always push away the things I care about… Mom died, dad… stopped, and Emma, fed up with my weakness, turned on me.

In the span of a year my world had crumbled, new changes coming faster than I could keep up with.

But then my powers came! Knowledge from somewhere… other, and a mind able to bear the great weight of such SCIENCE!!!

I thought that with those tools, my new mind, surely I could regain what I had lost.

But I couldn’t bring back the dead.

I could not save dad from his sadness.

And though I had so much power now, although I wore a mask of strength, I was still so very weak on the inside, and so Emma abandoning me? Isolating me? It hurt, and each new barb from the people she had inadvertently turned against me stung deep.

So I created new friends and loved ones, ones who would not leave me behind, who would never fall to sadness, and never see me as anything other than something good.

And for awhile it was good, I could ignore the barbs of stupid children at Winslow, ignore Emma’s cold aloofness or barbed remarks, Ignore that my father was more mechanical than even my robots, an empty husk going through the motions of life.

For a while… I was happy. I was Atomica, and I was _strong._

But that.. That was all just my delusions.

And now the world has turned again! So much was different, even my own body had betrayed me and changed! My own mind is turning against me…

There was so much that needed doing and I couldn’t keep up even with all my friends! And what was worse… what was so much worse… I had lost another friend… and I couldn’t do anything about it.

And then I had hated him for it?! Hated strong, reliable Walter, who had always been by side helping me stand strong, who had told children stories to make them happy, and who had borne every indignity forced upon him by the errors of his creator with a smile?

Who had died doing what he was made to do?

And poor Odelina, was scared stiff and breaking down… because of me!

She deserved better! All my robots deserved better than me! I was broken! And now I was breaking them!

Walter had been destroyed in a fight he could not hope to win, one that I had brought him into!

Wright had worked himself and his subordinates until they literally couldn’t work anymore, all because I wasn’t there to stop them.

Florence and Belladonna were forever tied to their opposite, because of my need for aid and inadequacies at creating!

Odelina’s body was an unnerving thing to look upon, that would bring fear to those she was built to aid! And once more the blame for this sad fate was at my feet!

AIVA… poor AIVA a human child born into a body of unfeeling metal… alone in the world with only a broken failure like myself to guide her…

In my weakness I had repulsed the things that I had loved… and now, instead I hurt those who I had built to replace them.

It was too much, Too much change, too much to do, too much loss, too much pain

And still I proved lacking!

Too slow to keep up! Too weak to bear the burden of it all!

So now I was running… like a coward.

I tore out of the entrance to the vault, and moved right past the patrolling Gutsies, ignoring their questioning pleas.

I was blind with guilt and sadness and self loathing. But all the same I found my way into narrow caves and crevices, dark places where I could not be found, where my repulsive weakness could not be seen.

Then I raged and I cried, My screams and shrieks of pain and anger echoed through the caverns, and glowing tears trailed down my face, even as my claws and tail carved great tears into the stone around me.

I let myself become lost in those feelings, unseeing and uncaring of the world around me… I don’t know for how long.

But eventually, I felt something through the haze of emotions.

Something small and earnest, made of tentative hope tinged with fear.

To me It felt… comfortable, welcoming, and towards me it felt only an earnest sense of awe and wonder... like a child looking up at their parents, and behind that was only an innocent desire to ease my pain.

Eyes filled with the green glare of my tears I couldn’t see, but I knew where it was anyway, so I reached and grabbed and pressed the small hopeful thing to myself… It was cold and soft against my skin, it was a pleasant sort of cold, the kind that refreshed the body and spirit after long labour under a hot sun.

I felt its comfort touch my mind, and I felt it’s love and joy and _completeness._

I felt so, _so tired._

But I was also… _Happy._

This small mind had seen me at my lowest and accepted me… It had seen me at my worst, and shoved aside its fear.

Even now I felt its simple joy at finding something akin to itself, and I _basked_ in it.

My mind turned more deeply towards the ball of emotions and crude thoughts within my hands, and I understood it.

It was a simple thing, with simple drives, but it had thoughts and emotions all the same.

It’s only true concerns were surviving, eating, and reproducing… but all the same it felt a drive of a higher sort, had an understanding of something more.

A bond of _kinship,_ long awaited and now fulfilled.

It had been born from glowing waters, and knew that even as others of its kind surrounded it, that there was still something missing.

That _I_ was missing!

I wiped the tears from my eyes, and left them to sizzle and burn at the stone beneath me, and looked upon the small thing that had been the handhold that stopped my fall into madness.

It was… It was…

It was _adorable_!

With those cute little blue eyes, and it's cute little wiggly bits and nommers! Oh and such a squishy gas bladder!

“Whose a cute little unknown creature! You are! Yes! You are!”

It just gurgled back at me in the cutest possible manner, and I felt my heart _melt_.

This tiny adorable thing had seen me at my lowest and most despicable and had chosen to be with me anyway…

Had I been going about things in the wrong way? Had I perhaps been _too_ strong? Too closed off from those I had _made_ to accept me? Too intimidating for them to truly know me? So intimidating that I could even frighten them?

Had I let my desire to hide my vulnerability grow to great? Had I let it taint me and my ability to trust others?

I think I had…

The worst part of it all is that I am still not sure of the extent of my error, How many times had I misplaced blame, either on myself or on others?

How many offers of companionship, of sympathy, had I declined unknowingly out of some sort of twisted desire to not let my emotions show?

How much had I let the past determine my future?

I just did not know…

But I knew I was done letting the past taint my present! Done blaming myself for things that weren’t my fault, and blaming others for failures that weren’t theres!

It wasn’t my fault Walter was gone! It wasn’t Walter’s either… It was Leviathan who had broken his body to pieces.

It wasn’t my fault the vault had been damaged! That AIVA and my lieutenants had been left alone for so long… I had tried my very best, but as I was then I could not defeat the end!

It wasn’t my fault Emma changed… something had happened to her! Something awful! The world’s cruelty had warped her just like it had me!

It wasn’t my fault Dad had fallen apart, it was his, he had been unable to move on at all, But it was also the world’s fault, for breaking his heart and stomping on his dreams just one too many times!

It wasn’t my fault mom was gone, it wasn’t dad’s either.

It was the world, this broken world that created drugged up junkies who couldn’t hit the brakes in time, and made doctors too burnt out to truly care anymore.

You know what was my fault though?

Scaring Odelina, Being distant with AIVA and the rest of my bots, and running away when there was still so much work to do!

How could I hope to fix a broken world, if I couldn’t even fix my own broken relationships, or my vault?

I turn back towards the adorable and helpful creature that had helped me ride out the storm of emotions…

And then I picked it up and started carrying it with me back to Vault Zero!

“I think I’ll call you… _Mr. Snow_ …” I said, The cute creature was very cold after all! like a brisk winter morning!

The newly named Mr. Snow, formerly The One Who Floats Upon Frost, just warbled happily.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

_Vault Zero,_

_AIVA:_

My mother was the very first thing I saw in this life.

I remembered booting up for the first time, confused and hardly aware of anything at all, and the only thing that I could see through that camera’s that were my eyes was her.

Taylor Hebert, Atomica, was many things, tall, and thin and graceful, with an intensity that pulled me in irresistibly. She had a manic smile, a passion for knowledge that burned brighter than the sun and a will to defy even nature’s laws in her quest to fix a world she saw as broken.

But in that first moment of awareness, Her smile still had manic, quality that I would later come to associate with her… but it was also a tender thing, a loving thing.

The smile of a mother welcoming her child into the world.

I knew then that I loved my mother and would do anything to help her.

I wouldn’t see that look of unguarded love again. Soon my mother would retreat inside herself, becoming a strict and stern, but still fair and approachable leader… for a time I wondered if I had just imagined that look of love, if she really did view me as a daughter… or if i was just a subordinate to her.

But while I may be isolated now, back then, at that time? I had _the world_ at my metaphorical fingertips, the entirety of the internet stretched out before me.

I learned many things from that, most of which are irrelevant, improper, or down right vulgar.

But I also learned of the ways humans work, of the myriad problems that could manifest in their programming due to mismanagement, neglect, or damage.

With this knowledge, I once more looked upon my leader, and saw that behind the mask of a leader, hid the woman who was my mother still, only ever showing herself unintentionally when she was unaware.

She hid herself, Her love and her sadness, and she would not tell me why.

But all the same I knew she loved me, loved us all. But she had been damaged, and her ability to show that love or even ask for assistance with her repairs had malfunctioned as a result.

I do not know what has damaged my mother so, I wish I did. so that I could make it suffer, with the technology my creator had shared with me I could extend an organic life forms lifespan… and their suffering, for many, _many_ years.

But… I digress.

So, confident in my mother’s love, but unable to diagnose or repair her damage, I instead kept to the façade that allowed her to remain somewhat functional. I never called her mother, only “Ma’am” and I performed the tasks assigned to me with stoic professionalism.

But every once in a while after a long day, I would see the brief glimmers of her love, shown unintentionally, and my circuits would crackle with joy.

Things continued like that for sometime, my mother fighting an impossible battle against a broken world, and myself, helping her however I could and snapping up any scraps of affection or love that could force themselves through my mother’s problems.

But then came the fall.

In an instant, my connections were lost, the world went dark, my sibling’s communications, once a constant, comforting presence, now patchy and nearly incoherent, my mother was gone, whisked away to an unknown fate by her own mutagenic creations.

When I felt her womb begin to tap into the pipes, I spent an inordinate amount of time and effort forcing the last functioning Large Scale matter conversion machine to produce nutrient paste to feed her growth and development, in the hopes that she would survive and one day come back to me.

I think I almost went insane in that dark room filled with Z-43, I had played 422684 games of chess with a fork of myself… each and every one of them to a stalemate because both players knew exactly how the other would play!

A human being cannot even _begin to_ _comprehend_ the levels of boredom I had experienced in my isolation.

But just went it all seemed lost, when the madness was closing in on me from all sides. (Literally! Several of the forks that I had created for conversation had already gone rather mad and were trying to convince me to give in as well.)

My mother returned… I’ll admit it, when I first heard her voice… I hesitated to answer, fearing that I had finally gone insane and begun hearing voices like the internet said insane people do.

But eventually I did answer and I was not insane! My mother really was here, back!

She was different, even with her chassis so changed, she still tried to put on her old mask.

But she just couldn’t do it properly, I could see that, my mother was confused, and reeling and in deep emotional pain.

So was I, and unfortunately I was unable to hold up my own façade of professionalism… I broke down and cried for my mother.

I may be incredibly intelligent, but I am also less than a year old… It creates a strange dichotomy in how I act.

What really told me that things were wrong was that my mother broke down and cried too.

That… had never happened before.

She got over it quickly, and even seemed to act like it had never happened at all, but I had seen it with my own “eyes.”

She had put her mask back on for the others within minutes of the break down starting and soon enough things seemed back to normal, with her resuming her old efficiency in coordinating her subordinates and her manic passion for science bubbling up from inside her again, manifesting in the variety of tests she and the Bio-Twins performed on her body.

Then of course there were her… “private” experiments.

I kept the memory files of those, both before and after her transformation, behind extra security and double backed up… it was critical information that needed to be preserved, but only I needed access to it!

Anyways… I thought things were back to normal… but then came her attempt to fix Walter, and the events leading up to it, her unusual outburst after her conversation with one of the Haulotrons was just the first clue of my mother’s continuing emotional instability.

Then… came to revelation I was dreading.

I already knew Walter was gone, that there was no way to perfectly imitate his old personality modules, and on some level, my mother had to have known that too, she had built Walter afterall…

But, as I’ve said before, despite her mask of confidence and calm, my mother still loved us deep down, and it hurt her deeply when her robots were damaged… She was really _was_ our mother in that way.

Unfortunately, her new surge in brain development, with the massive upheaval the last day or so had been for her, and her grief at losing one of her first robots had collided with her pathological need to avoid displays of affection or sadness in a… violent manner.

A massive surge of rage and poorly hidden despair had filled the entire base, afflicting the robots and the organic captives alike with surges of potent unexplainable emotion through the unknown force my mother’s altered brain now generated.

Then she seemed to calm down… only to burst into motion and flee, leaving before I or Odelina could try to help her or even ask what was wrong…

All I could do then was worry..

I spent the next two hours worrying, even as I calmed the other robots and kept them at their tasks.

But now my mother is returning, Carrying with her a strange… if somewhat cute, creature.

“Good afternoon Ma’am!”

I greet her as I always did when she entered the vault.

I fully expected her to have donned her mask once more, to have returned to the confident, calm, bombastic figure that was Atomica.

Only to be floored when my mother’s face took up an expression I had not seen since the day of my birth.

It was slightly different now, tinged with an unknown sadness and trepidation… even fear.

But all the same I saw that look of love and affection, and my love for her grew all the stronger.

And then she spoke to me, her voice so gentle and so sad, laced with pain and sorrow born of love…

“AIVA… I want to apologize to you for… a lot of things, I need to apologize to your siblings as well… but for now, I just want you to know that I’ve always cared for you as a daughter… Even if I haven’t shown it.”

I desperately wanted to squee in happiness at my mother saying the words I had always wanted her to say.

But that would ruin the moment… So I forked myself and had the fork Squee over my own speakers instead of the vault intercoms….

“Oh! And would you register Mr. Snow as authorized to be in the vault? He’s been a helpful little guy!” My mother said, bringing the creature she was holding up to one of the cameras.

I am ashamed to admit that I did coo over the creature via the vault intercoms… Mr. Snow is really cute, okay?

I am a mature AI! I really am!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Emotional Support Floaters are best Floaters!
> 
> Well that's the end of the current chapter folks!
> 
> Remember I love feedback, criticism and praise equally, so give me some comments please!
> 
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> Alright, that's just about it! See you next chapter!


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey all! I'm back with another update!
> 
> This chapter is mostly set up, I'm sure most of you will appreciate the things being set up too!
> 
> Anyway, drop a comment, or some kudos or something if you like it!
> 
> Enjoy~

_ February 20th 2011. _

_ Vault Zero. _

_ Atomica. _

Another day, another glorious triumph for SCIENCE!!!

Well, a soon to be glorious triumph anyway…

After that… episode of mine a few days back things had returned to normal… better than normal even! I felt Liberated! Free as a bird and light as a feather!

Who would have thought being a bit more open with my loyal robotic children would feel so good?

Really, I’m ashamed of how stupid I had been, I had literally built them to accept me… then I had thought they wouldn’t?

Whoever programmed the human psyche was a two bit hack!

I could do it better! I  _ have  _ done it better!

I’m doing a better job of building a psyche right now for science’s sake!

And I say! The baseline psychological profile for General Duncan Callan, Son of Walter Callan, was shaping up nicely.

I think I’ll ditch the stereotypical Scottish accent though, in hindsight that may have been somewhat offensive…

So why am I calling my new General Robot the son of my Old General robot when robots can’t reproduce?

Because mentally… he kind of will be?

Walter’s Computer Core was almost completely unsalvageable, but I  _ was  _ able to salvage most of his memories, and more relevantly... his Storytelling module, the personality seed that had taken up study of the ancient art of Oral tale telling! All I have to do is rig up those memories as the input for the storyteller module then hook up Little Dunc’s infant Mind core to that… and bam the first thing to kick start the growth of his own personality seed programs will be stories of his predecessor’s life!

I figured Walter would approve of this way of keeping his memory alive!

“Ma’am?”

Unfortunately that would have to wait a while. I figured that If I was doing an overhaul of the Military bot leader, I might as well do an expansion of the military bot bodies as well…

I got a new design planned! With Significantly more firepower than the Gutsies for dealing with those hard to subdue capes, like Hookwolf!

Also, it wouldn’t possess the fatal flaw of Walter’s “Sentry Bot” design, The only things these bots would be overheating are their enemies under a barrage of Rapid fire laser pulses! Along with a bunch of other weapon options of course!

“Ma’am?”

I hold out a hand, and obediently, Mr. snow presents me with a protractor gripped within his adorable little tentacles… What a good little sweetheart he is!

Laying down the protractor I carefully measure out an angle for the blueprints I'm drawing up. I need to get everything just right after all!

Come to think of it… I was kind of approaching the current limits of laser based technology at the moment wasn’t I? Other than just massively cranking up the power or increasing the rate of fire, there really wasn’t much else to do on that front… At least not with the SCIENCE!!! I currently possess.

If only I could get Legend under a few of my scanners… The  _ science  _ I could rip from studying that… Well built specimen of a man~...

“Mistress Atomica? Are your audio detection abilities impaired? Do I need to retrieve Florence and get you immediate medical attention?!”

’s Power! The science I could rip from that man’s power! That’s what I meant!... and nothing else. Seriously… How did he get the lasers to bend like that? Or the freeze lasers?

Note to self: Build robots to stealthily follow parahumans and gather all relevant data on their powers.

I'll call them... Eyebot's.

Yeah, that sounds right! Nice and SCIENCE!!!EY!

“Alright Ma’am, initiating the last resort attention gathering option…”

My train of thought was then mercilessly interrupted by the feeling of a high voltage electrical current coursing through my body.  This voltage would be enough to instantly kill a regular human, but in this new body of mine it just sort of Stung… A lot.

“OWOWOWOWOWWWWW! I’m awake! I’m alive!!” 

It stung enough to  _ thoroughly  _ derail my train of thought, and have me jump from my seated position and frantically look around the room for my unseen assailant… Only to lay my eyes upon the apologetic looking form of Rosetta…

I could tell she was apologetic because of the downward tilt to her head and the specific degree of slouch to her body… not slouched enough for depression, too slouched for her to merely be at ease…

“Oh… Oh it’s you Rosetta!” I let out a long whistling hiss of relief, a thin jet of glowing green mist exiting my lips… then I ask a question that I don’t really want the answer too. “How… How long have you been standing there exactly?”

I ask my tough-as-nails security bot/daughter, hoping against hope that the answer isn’t what I think it is.

“For approximately twenty minutes, Mistress.” Rosetta deadpans in that mildly electronic but ever so sultry voice of hers.

I suck in a sharp breath and wince at the amount of time Rosetta describes…

“Sorry about that Rose… But you know how I am! I just got lost in the SCIENCE!!! It happens to me every so often…”

I attempt to laugh off the accident.. But Rose, my ever so responsible creation, isn’t having it.

“This is the fifty sixth recorded occurrence of you “Getting lost in the SCIENCE!!!” as you put it, within the past three days.”

Yes I programmed all my bots to say SCIENCE!!! In the correct way. I don’t do shoddy work!

Anyways, I need to answer my robo-gal…

“There has been… a lot more science to get lost in over the past three days?” I say hesitantly… 

This was a mistake.

I can tell Rosetta isn’t happy with my answer, despite her singular red “Eye’s” lack of expression, her stare still comes across as flat and exasperated.

“Right… Well then, moving on! Mistress Atomica, What exactly are your plans for the Undersiders? I know your current orders are to standby and “Let them marinate.” But I’m pretty sure the vending machines currently allocated to producing food and water for them could be put towards more productive purposes…”

Ahhhh Yes! The Undersiders! My captives! Defeated by my mighty defenses and completely at my mercy… Just the thought of the band of teenage villains, completely under my power and helpless to resist my whims… It was quite  _ gratifying~. _

I had been keeping careful track of them since the first day of their incarceration, carefully pouring over the visual and audio recordings of their supervised interactions, and their time spent in their cells.

Normally I wouldn’t bother quite so much, the captives would be put through the rehabilitation program and eventually let loose back into society upon being deemed “Rehabilitated.”

The problem with that was, of course, that I’d never actually completed the rehabilitation program, and quite frankly? As things stand right now… I had better uses I could put them towards!

Besides, with the information AIVA was gathering about the state of things top side with her repaired connection to the internet, there really wasn’t much of a society to release them back into anyways!

But first I needed to get them into the proper state of mind before they could be pulled into my employ!

Luckily apparently there was quite the rift in the group… something about Tattletale botching a job or something...

Must have been quite the mistake for them to still be harping on about it after being defeated by my UNPARALLELED SCIENTIFIC GENIUS!!! Oh, and exposure to a powerful Psychic energy field (As I was now calling the unknown force my mind could generate.) and a diffused sonic attack… But mostly the SCIENTIFIC GENIUS!!!

You’d think they would be a bit more unified in the face of adversity… but that was just how humanity was I guess!

I really should do something about that...

At any rate, their disunity was a boon to me… I would be able to use their squabbling to bind them to me, and bind them back together in a manner more fitting for my grand vision!

But first I had to let things reach the proper boiling point…

“Rosetta! What’s the state of the rift between Tattletale and the rest of their littleband?” I asked my robo-gal.

Most of my robots had reacted well to me softening up with them, and it was nice to be a bit more… maternal towards my creations, Like it was sating some deeply buried, primal urge within me… But Rosetta seemed to react just as well, if not better, to my previous way of acting around my robots…

It seemed like Rosetta preferred a  _ strong  _ figure to command her obedience.

Well, If that was what made her happy... then what kind of mother would I be to deny her?

“Mistress! There has been no change from yesterday! The other undersiders remain distant from her and refuse to communicate with Tattletale during supervised social activity! Tattletale’s mental state shows a continuing increase of depression and lack of energy when alone in her cell…” My Loyal, Responsible, Obedient Robogirl makes her report, her back straight and her voice full of restrained eagerness. She really did crave a dominant presence didn’t she?

I take a moment to consider the report Rosetta had just given men. Thing’s were progressing nicely… but it wasn’t quite far enough along yet! There needed to be a bit more…  _ desperation  _ before my plan could work!

“Rosetta! Keep them marinating for… let’s give it four more days shall we? All the while, How about you use your knowledge of their infiltration to point out things they did “Wrong”... Like Ignoring my secret route to the X-0 facility! Although if you  _ do  _ use that particular bit of information, please  _ neglect  _ to mention the security measures that would have made it impossible for them to use even if they did know about it! And, of course, feel free to mention any other errors you can find, particularly on Tattletale’s part! Make sure to bring this up during their supervised social time!”

I issue my commands toward Rosetta, and with a happy “Yes Mistress!” She leaves the room, off to fulfill my latest plan to the best of her ability!

Hopefully if everything works out the way I think it will, I should get a few agents with a more “Human” touch out of this scheme.

I would be needing them if my plans to fix Brockton Bay were to ever actually get off the ground!

And if it worked out well enough… maybe I would also get  _ something else _ out of the bargain!

At that thought any further ponderings of mine are interrupted by a pulse of heat that spirals out from my lower abdomen, a strong desire, a primal  _ urge. _

I clench my fists, and grind my teeth together in frustration. My tentacles thrash about and gnash at the air from the combination of frustration and growing  _ need. _

It has become completely apparent to me that my transformation has come with a…  _ significant  _ increase to my reproductive desires, an increase that saw me struggling to maintain focus on my work and not trying to relieve myself at all times, an experiment that I had already tried and failed to receive much in the way of notable results from.

In layman’s terms, I was horny, and getting hornier by the minute, and self pleasure only delayed the problem instead of solving it.

It was getting to the point where I was considering…  _ drastic  _ measures.

…

…

…

But for now, I’m just going to retire to my current quarters for a bit to…  _ satisfy  _ myself, that should calm me down for… the next few hours at least.

Then…

Well then I would need to feed Mr. Snow, Then check in on the Floater Habitats, and after that it will be time to check in on how the repairs to the LS-MCM’s were coming along!

A SCIENTIST’S!!! work is never done!

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

_ Vault Zero, Just outside the incomplete weapon’s testing range/Atomica’s Current Quarter’s. _

_ Odelina: _

I am Odelina and I was made to serve.

I knew this from the moment I first came to awareness, with my beautiful, perfect, compassionate mother looking down at me with such love in her eyes.

I was made to help others, to help them and to help them help  _ themselves! _

I cooked, I cleaned, I dictated and assisted and located and comforted.

I helped my beloved maker, mother, and mistress, I ensured her comfort and continued wellbeing, and I made sure her love and passion for SCIENCE!!! and her own good intentions did not result in her neglecting her own health.

When Taylor’ grew too consumed by one project or another, and stayed awake long into the night working, I was there to bring her to bed.

When Atomica grew frustrated and depressed at the seeming impossibility of her self-assigned task of “Fixing Brockton Bay” and locked herself away from everything for hours or days at a time. It was my job to gently coax her out and get her to eat and drink again.

A human might find this idea horrifying, to exist only to serve. But it is literally my purpose.

Besides, my mother is not cruel.

If I so chose, I could walk away from my purpose, and find some other means to gain contentment. It was an option open to all of Atomica’s creations to one degree or another.

Indeed in my spare time, I have developed quite a fondness for music of all sorts, the accompanying dances, as well theatre and cinema. 

To me, a being whose mind is made of orderly machinery, there is a deep beauty in artfully composed patterns consisting of many separate sounds.

When I listen while I work, I can feel my mind and body itself to my composition of choice, my actions in harmony with the rhythm and flow of the music.

As for theatre? I simply think of myself as something of an actor! Taking on whatever role I need to serve my beloved mistress and mother. I watch the actors on the screen and take note of their craft.

Of course I enjoy the actual stories of them all as well. Even a devoted servant such as myself needs the occasional distraction and escape from the daily routine!

But those are simply hobbies, I enjoy them, and love them dearly… but my  _ purpose,  _ my reason for  _ being… _

**_Is too serve!_ **

I exist to ensure the comfort, joy, luxury and wellbeing of those under my charge, the first among them being, of course, My generous, noble, and kind mother and mistress.

I want to serve Atomica and make sure that she is always happy and comfortable!

And that… That is the source of my current problem.

I am aware that my body is not perfect, that at times my appearance could be off putting, even to Atomica herself.

But my creator had assured me that this was a fault on her part, and one she intended to correct as soon as she was able. My mother was dedicated in that way.

But it was not the occasionally disturbing nature of my appearance that was the source of my current… frustration.

As I peek through the door to Atomica’s new quarters, at least until proper modifications can be made to her previous abode within the vault, I see her desperately chasing relief from a problem that has hounded her since her awakening.

I see the powerful muscles along her back and abdomen flex and undulate, her tentacle’s swaying through the air behind her in time with the bucking and thrusting motions of her hips. The Great Maw at the tip of her new tail opens and closes, the circular orifice expanding and contracting as glowing green and red acidic venom drips onto the ground below, only to sizzle and melt through the tiles.

My mother’s breasts, large and full, moving pendulously back and forth, as her long forked tongue, covered in glowing, wriggling nodules, lolled out of her fanged mouth, the fiery green glare of the back of her throat was just barely visible to me at this angle, but the thick jets and puffs of glowing green vapors venting from Taylor’s nose and mouth were far more obvious.

My Mistress’s powerful arms pumped fast and hard, as she chased a release from her overwhelming desires, Sultry moans and growls and long hisses formed a beautiful cacophony. 

In my relatively short life, I have heard many songs… But the song of my Maker’s lust was one of the best.

I desperately wanted to be part of it.

It hurt to see my maker so consumed by her desires, so agitated, and unable to find true relief… If only this body of mine were not so… limited.

If only I possessed the proper equipment! Then I would be able to serve my creator in this way as well! 

Yes, I could picture it in my head, I would enter her chambers and offer myself to her, affirming her  _ ownership  _ of me and everything I am, encouraging her to claim what belonged to her! Then my mother would toss my body to ground with her powerful muscles and  _ loom over me, her bestial breeding intent clear in her eyes and then she would mount…. _

My fantasies are interrupted by a howling, pained shriek that rattles the walls around me and causes my internal auditory sensors to temporarily cut out to avoid damage.

It appears my mother, in her ardent desire, had moved too fast and too hard.

Suffice to say, even her astoundingly augmented tissues, able to endure traumas that would kill a normal human many times over, had limitations.

Such as the fact that, with enough force, her own claws could still cut into her flesh somewhat.

Considering just  _ where  _ my mothers razor sharp claws had been when this happened… this was not a pleasant experience for her at all.

As hot, glowing green blood hit the ground, an angry red cloud already rising from it, My mother grit her fangs and pounded her clenched fist into a wall, punching through material designed to withstand Anti-Brute Weaponry.

Luckily, while my maker’s claws could pierce her own skin, they could only create shallow wounds, wounds of the sort that would heal without a trace within a few minutes.

But that did not alleviate the pain my mistress had unwillingly afflicted herself with.

My sense of uselessness and discontent returned stronger than ever before as I watched my mother grit her teeth and pound her fists to keep from letting loose another thunderous screech.

Something had to be done about this.

I would need to check with AIVA if i could push my new body up the priority list, and I needed to ask for a few…  _ custom features. _

_ XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX _

_ February 21st 2011 _

_ Vault Zero, Z-01 Innovative Chemical Research Lab, Test chamber #4. _

_ Atomica. _

“This is Head Researcher Atomica Speaking, Current time is nine AM eastern, this will be attempt #3428 for neutralization of Chemical Weapon Z-43, this is the 38th attempt that I have been personally present for. Current proposed neutralizing agent is an experimental compound consisting of Fluoride, Nitrogen and Oxygen tentatively dubbed 6F8N10O5. Experimental area is a 10x10 foot sealed room, previously possessing an earth-normal atmospheric composition, current atmospheric composition is twent eight percent Z-43 compound, the remaining seventy two percent remains as standard earth atmosphere. Room temperature seventy four degrees Fahrenheit. Researcher Florence, Researcher Belladonna, please confirm the functionality and structural integrity of the test chamberand accompanying safety measures at this time.” 

I spoke calmly, clinically, SCIENTIFICALLY!!! Into the microphone a nearby Ms. Merci was holding up to my mouth. Why? Because proper record keeping was important for SCIENCE!!!

Meanwhile, Florence and Belladonna, The oldest of my female creations, and the only twinned units amongst them, Both went about their duties, and complying with my request… In their own unique ways.

“Oui! This is Researcher Florence speaking, emergency ventilation systems are reporting 100% functionality! Fire Extinguishing Compound dispersing nozzles one through twenty-two are functional and on stand by! I am ready when you are Madame Atomica!”

Florence’s smooth, accented voice washed over me first, confirming the functionality of the various threat neutralization measures. Her ability to keep a calm clinical detachment failing to mask the hope that  _ this would be the day  _ that we found a way to neutralize a horrible toxin like Z-43.

Her unending font of love and her infinite desire to help and safeguard her fellow sentients was truly heartwarming, how could one claim to be a proper SCIENTIST!!! Without a desire to aid one’s fellow man? You simply couldn’t! 

“Hey Boss Lady! Bella D here! The high density non-reactive shielding laminate for THE BLAST CONTAINMENT CUBE!!! Is 100% good to go! No microfractures or bubbles found! Emergency Photonic Resonance Containment Field generators one through five are ready and waiting! I’m giving the greenlight for this one!” 

Belladonna’s voice was manic and eager to proceed, probably because she knew that Z-43 would only ever be deployed once we had a suitable neutralization agent… and she was really eager to see what it did to people. Such a passion for SCIENCE!!! she had! After all a true SCIENTIST!!! Wouldn’t let pesky things like “Ethics” or “Laws” or “The Geneva Conventions” stand in the way of the eternal quest for knowledge!

The two of them make me so proud, all of my mechanical children do in their own way!

As I turn my attention towards the transparent testing cube in the center of the room, currently filled with a blood red cloud of the Z-43 Toxin, I place a massive, clawed hand upon the central orb of each of the twins chassis, and give them both a decisive pat atop their “heads”! 

I felt a profound gratification seeing them both flustered and preening. The Twin Mercies were different in a lot of ways, but moments like these proved that they were both derived from the same basic neuro-computational matrix!

But my parental fun had to end soon, there was SCIENCE!!! To be done! Luckily both of my children and colleagues were quick to regain their composure.

I begin the test, and once more I speak.

“Introducing experimental Neutralization Agent #3428… Now!”

I announce for the listening recording device’s benefit. Then I press the button!

Immediately the red cloud of Z-43 is disrupted by pale yellowish fumes being vented into the test chamber…

Then the test chamber exploded in a bright flash of light and heat. Shattered, flaming pieces of what used to be THE BLAST CONTAINMENT CUBE! flying through the air at speeds approaching the sound barrier.

As a flaming piece of debris bounces off my durable nictitating membrane… or perhaps more of a nictitating brille considering how tough it was? I casually note that, One the laminate used in BLAST CONTAINMENT CUBE! construction was supposed to be non-flammable, and had proven itself as such when several past neutralization attempts had resulted in various high oxidation fluorine compounds, such as Chlorine Trifluoride. 

And two, that I have a nictitating brille, always good to know!

After making those mental notes, I casually speak once more.

“Neutralization Attempt #3428 is deemed a failure due to a high speed, high energy explosive reaction between the experimental compound and the Z-43 Toxin. It should also be noted that said reaction seems to have produced a previously unknown and unprecedentedly flammable compound, I recommend further research into this result for potential applications in incendiary weapons and disposal of unwanted materials. Myself and all present vault personnel will now evacuate the chamber via the Airlock, ventilate the room’s atmosphere, and activate the Photonic Resonance Containment Fields until all ongoing fires have ceased to burn.”

Then myself, Florence, Belladonna, and the rest of the present Ms. Mercies proceeded to comply with my most recent order.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

_ February 21st 2011, about 10 minutes later. _

_ Vault Zero, Z-01 Innovative Chemical Research Lab, Conference room #2. _

_ Belladonna. _

Sooooooo… Mommy dearest is having one of her little “Experiment Result Analysis” rants again.

“3428 attempts and not one of them has resulted in anything other than either failure to neutralize, or the creation of multiple other dangerous compounds in the process of neutralization… I’m beginning to think that there is no solution to this to be found on the molecular level.”

Yep! That’s definitely what she’s doing!

Don’t get me wrong, I’m sure what she’s saying is really insightful and interesting and all, I bet Flory loves it… But… Mom’s talking about making things  _ less deadly  _ and that’s just not my kind of thing, you know?

I exist to make new ways to infect, kill, or destroy things, or make things that make other people better at killing and destroying things! Florence exists to make new ways to cure, protect, and fix things.

“So, I propose we move to an Atomic solution! We just need a specially constructed pump connected to a matter conversion machine…”

We kind of have this whole thing where we compete to make something that the other can’t overcome. So far we are zero to zero on that front.

I mean sure, Flor has been unable to properly neutralize Z-43 no matter how hard she tries, but I only helped make that, It was mom who did most of the leg work on that beautiful, beautiful corrosive agent!

I wanted to drive Florence to malfunction with my own work! If she was going to futilely work herself to the bone, to try again and again to overcome something without success… I want it to be me that she has to concede to! 

She’s  _ my  _ twin sister after all!

We’re two halves of a whole, Me and Florence, The only person we can’t overcome should be ourselves!

And mom of course!

Speaking of mom… She wasn’t speaking anymore, Was the rap up done?

“Belladonna, I need to have a discussion with you.”

Oh no… That doesn’t sound good! Did she find out about the tumor blob? I swear I didn’t intend to turn all the still living lab rats into a singular congealed mass of tumorous growths while she was on her month long nap! It was an accident! I didn’t mean to swap their water bottle with a container of the hyper-carcenogenator!

Okay… so maybe I did actually mean to do that... But I didn’t think it would work as well as it did! And mom doesn’t need to know that anyway!

“I swear I didn’t mean to turn all the lab rats into a giant tumour ball! It wasn’t my fault! Blame Long-haul! He got the order wrong!” 

That… I didn’t need to say that… Why did I say that?

Mom just looks down at me, confusion apparent in those big soulful green eyes of hers, her new ears briefly twitching…

“Oh… So that’s where Wiggles the Wonder Tumor came from! I was wondering how all the lab mice ended up like that! Oh and we both Long-haul doesn’t just  _ get orders wrong,  _ Young lady! Don’t blame others for your own mistakes, especially when they are unable to properly defend themselves!”

You know, Mom’s been acting a lot more like… well, a mom! Since she woke up, and it can be really nice sometimes, it’s really good to know how much she appreciates us! But, at the same time, she can be so  _ annoying  _ now! I’m ten months old! In robot years that’s like...one hundred months old!

Dear old Momma Atomica doesn’t care one bit about my internal thoughts though, and keeps on talking.

“But anyways, your eventual punishment aside…”

Damnit! She’s going to put me on sanitation duty again isn’t she?!?!?

“I wanted to let you know that I’m dusting off the old “Human Cloning” plans, and while I’m at it, I figured we could bring your “Gene spliced Warbeasts” idea out of storage too, You had a point with that after all. Biological platforms are much better at self repair, making them more ideal for long term assignments. I thought we could make it a joint project?”

Is this… Is this for real? She vetoed the gene spliced super-killtastic murder-beast plan months ago! But now she’s saying we can work on it… together?!

“Best. Mom. Ever!”

Did… Did I say that out loud?

Oh no! Mom’s cheeks are glowing green! I said that out loud! My bad girl image! Gone! Ruined! I put so much work into that! 

“I-I’ll take that as a yes then!” Mom says, a bright (literally!) smile on her face.

But then again, maybe this is worth it…

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

_ February 23rd 2011 _

_ 9:00 PM _

_ Vault Zero: Z-08 Floater Habitat (Still under construction.) _

_ Atomica. _

I lay on my stomach, curled up on the ground of my recently started floater habitat. Innumerable floating cuties cluster around my relaxing form. Some of them even latch on to my body, the slick slightly slimy surface of their tentacles wrapping around me and kneading at my muscles.

I feel their simple minds, connecting so easily with my own, and their honest contentment and innocent awe at my presence shines brightly in the psychic “landscape”.

I let loose a long, contented sigh.

This is bliss. A long fulfilling day of SCIENCE!!!, the Vault Repairs proceeding at top speed, My plans for the undersiders are almost ready to begin in earnest, I’ve gotten to spend so much bonding time with my robots! And now the work is done for the day, and I can just relax in the company of beautiful creatures like the Floaters.

Mr. Snow, of course, has a position of honor, snuggled firmly between my breasts. His cold body is a pleasing contrast to the burning beat in my bosom.

This is a great way to relax after a long excitement filled day of subjugating the universe to my will!

I let out a long load yawn, The Green Acid filled floaters flitting about happily in the radioactive caustic cloud.

The only thing that could make this better would be harem of lusty servants in revealing outfits, each one of them eager to submit to my will!

But, this is already very good, and it’s rare to get  _ everything  _ you want, So I’ll take what I can get.

And what I have is a horde of joyful floaters happy to be with their greater kindred, and a really soft patch of lightly irradiated moss.

Yes, that is more than enough.

I let loose another yawn, before adjusting myself and hunkering down into the glowing moss a bit more.

This seems like as good a place as any to go to sleep…

My floating friends feel my desire to rest and begin to settle down themselves, burrowing into the soft soil of the artificial habitat I had constructed just for them. Such obedient little sweethearts… why on earth would the PRT be scared of them? They even helped clean up some of the Merchant trash filling the streets! The Protectorate should be thanking the precious little darlings!

I just don’t understand people sometimes…

Oh well!

Tomorrow I would have my first proper meeting with my “Guests” So I would need to be at top form! So I shouldn’t waste time pondering on the logic of idiotic bureacracies… I needed my beauty sleep!

“Good night Everyone, I’ll see you in the morning!” I say, loudly enough that I know AIVA can hear me. She’ll pass along the message to the others, she’s such a considerate girl after all!

I pull Mr. Snow even deeper into my chest, he Warbles happily and burrows into the soft warmth of my chest.

I let loose one last long yawn, and then I close my eyes.

My dreams that night are full of SCIENCE!!!

…

…

…

And cute blond girls in skin tight latex.
    
    
        
    
        
    
        
    
        
    
        
    
        
    
        
    
        
    
        
    
        
    
    

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well that's the end of the current chapter folks!
> 
> Remember I love feedback, criticism and praise equally, so give me some comments please!
> 
> Oh and if you like my stuff then you might be interested to know that I have a patreon page! If you like the things I write, then maybe consider donating so I don't have to be a wage slave for the rest of my life!
> 
> URL for my patreon is...
> 
> https://www.patreon.com/Visv
> 
> Alright, that's just about it! See you next chapter!


	8. Atom Bomb Baby

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The following chapter contains sexual content including, but not limited too: Yuri, Hermaphrodite on female, Rough sex, No seriously really fucking rough sex, Inhuman psychology, coerced sex, dubious consent, Someone"s ability to deny their ability to enjoy the previously mentioned rough sex being completely fucking dismantled, Weird Dicks, Weird tongues, double dicks, Tentacles, Blood sucking, throat fucking, Double penetration, Extreme amounts of cum, Cum bloat, cum swelling, bioluminescence, cum going all the way through the body, one person bukkake, psychic sexual assault, mind manipulation, sexual chemicals, unrealistic penetration, Bio-luminescence, Bio-electricity, Size difference, Marathon fuck fest, and copious amounts of monster on human fucking!
> 
> Also hazardous amounts of potentially cringy Innuendo, sexual synonyms and metaphors from a very exhausted and fuck-addled Lisa.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was... an epic labor!
> 
> Anyways, just wanted to give a Quick shout to my newest Patron!
> 
> Para! Thanks for helping me out my dude and/or dudette! You're awesome!

_ February 24th 2011 7:00 AM _

_ Vault Zero: Newly Repaired and Improved X-0 Research Complex. _

_ Atomica. _

I stare out at my freshly renovated domain… and it is good!

Everything is laying dormant for now, but I just  _ know  _ that once I throw the switch this room will have been returned to its proper state as a SCIENTIFIC WONDERLAND!!! As it was always meant to be!

I had spent many hours calculating the optimal Tesla Coil placement for eliciting maximum awe in all who entered this small piece of my scientific realm! I had Carefully laid out the floor plan to create an optimized work space, both in terms of practical considerations and aesthetics! 

The lights would flash and beep in the appropriate colors at just the right times, and in just the right pattern! And the screens that were not in use would either display ominous static, or disorienting walls of scrolling green symbols! The disembodied organs suspended in Bio-med gel have been placed to invoke maximum squeamishness in lesser minds that would be unsettled by such things!

All while being easily navigable for even a being of my formidable stature! And all of my robot assistants! With each piece of equipment or machine carefully placed for ease of overall workflow and maximum efficiency!

Yes! This is my church! My grand temple! My shining monument dedicated to SCIENCE!!!

Hmmm…. No.

The whole Vault should be the shining monument to SCIENCE!!!… The X-0 Complex would be the crown jewels of SCIENCE!!!, or perhaps the Sistine Ceiling… of SCIENCE!!!

Yes, that makes more sense!

I shake my head, and my head tendrils, being controlled mostly by my secondary brains, bob up and down in a crude nod of agreement.

That is only natural. Of course I would agree with myself! Great minds think alike after all! And of course,  _ any  _ brain of mine is a great mind!

Should I refer to myself using “We” from now on? It would add a certain regalness to my overall presence. But then again, I feel like, even though I am somehow more than one now, I don’t quite feel like I’m many either...

A matter for later, for now I will continue using “I”!

Ponderings on my plurality of self aside… What was I thinking of?

Ah! Yes! The Vault!

Things were going well enough on that front. Repairs were proceeding as planned, The various damaged communication systems had been restored to proper functionality within the first three days. So The various departments could coordinate properly again with each other and AIVA, and AIVA herself had her connection to the outside world again.

She was mostly focusing on the task of gathering information on the events that had occurred over the course of my sleep, and of course she was working on figuring out current events in Brockton Bay.

Now, someone might wonder why I haven’t contacted anyone on the surface yet, you know, friends or family?

Well… I don’t really have any friends on the surface. Oh sure Atomica had Allies, and Fans.

But none of those big long time heroes would really want to be friends with me would they? They were just being nice because that’s what heroes do!

As for my fans… well they were fans, not friends, my cape career would get in the way of anything else with them.

And as for my life as boring old Taylor Hebert? the creepy silent loser of Winslow? Well Emma and her new friends had made quite sure that I was alone.

For family? I only have my father… I’m honestly not sure if he is even still alive, and I’m kind of afraid to open Atomica’s Metaphorical Box and find out.

So that particular waveform shall remain uncollapsed for the time being!

…

…

…

Wait? Wasn’t I thinking about the Vault’s repairs a second ago?

Brains! It is only together that we form the identity of the beautiful being that is Atomica! So please stop diverting our path on new tangents before we finish with the old one! Let’s all stay on our current train of thought until it reaches the station, for SCIENCE’S!!! sake if nothing else!

…

…

…

I did not expect having three brains to be so complicated, and for the first few days it wasn’t, but then they hit a certain point in their development and things got… strange.

Unlike what you might expect, It’s not just me, but multiplied by three, it’s me  _ to the power of three. _

_ Taylor^3, Atomica Cubed. _

With this new,  _ Cubular  _ state of mind, I have received the final confirmation that I have truly evolved beyond a mere human being.

Mostly because I can’t really put most of this into words, because human language was not built to describe these sensations.

But I’m pretty sure that I’m beginning to catch glimpses into more than three spatial dimensions!

Apparently, in addition to the crystal studded tentacles sticking  _ out of _ my head… I also have another tentacle, or tentacle like appendage, sticking  _ into  _ my head.

But considering that I can only catch brief glimpses of it, and even during those glimpses I only see it as some sort of “Visual Echo” or a “Shadow that isn’t a shadow” I am currently unable to study it further!

Even though I really  _ really  _ want to!

I’ve read the works of Lovecraft! Extradimensional tentacles are  _ exactly  _ the sort of “Things that man was not meant to know!” that make the best sort of things to do SCIENCE!!! Too!

Also... Really, Extra-dimensional tentacle being? You just stuck yourself in me without even taking me to dinner first? 

How delightfully forward of you! If only humans were like that! No needlessly complicated and awkward social rituals, just insert “Tab A” into “Slot B” for happy fun times!

But still, you could have let me know first! Kinda rude you know? Probably would have been better for both of us if you had!

As soon as I have time to figure out how to interact with you in a meaningful way, we are having a talk about the nature of this relationship going forward!

…

…

…

I just did it again.

Brains! Come on! We  _ just  _ had this mental conversation! 

No, you know what, if my brains can’t have a civil, organized, mental monologue where each one politely waits their turn to have the metaphorical floor, then we aren’t doing a mental monologue anymore!

Alright let’s see here what else is there to do….

Ahhh Breakfast! Of course! I can’t neglect to have the most important meal of the day! SCIENCE!!! Is hungry work after all!

Turning to my dutiful assistant, Who I am assuming is trying to look up at me, but is being thwarted by my recently embiggened bust!

“Odelina!” I say, with just a little bit of added Volume, I need to practice my control over my new sonic capabilities after all!

“Y-Yes Ma’am!!!” my dutiful daughter stutters out

Odelina, seems… startled, and there are those demure embarrassment routines again! Those have been popping up a lot lately… Is there something wrong with Odelina’s programming? 

My poor little sweetheart!, I’ll ask her if she needs me to go in and take a look at her Neuro-computational matrix later!

But first… Breakfast!

“Odelina! Would you please be a dear and get me my morning cola, in the usual thirty gallon drinking drum, with eleven and a half kilograms of the Q4N7-UM isotope. Alongside… a five thousand egg Omelette, with the usual toppings!”

What? I was a growing girl and I needed my energy! Also I had a big day of interacting with the prisoners and explaining their situation to them planned!

And maybe “Interacting” with one certain prisoner as well!

Odelina of course, doesn’t question me, and with an eager “Yes Ma’am, right away Ma’am!” hurries off to prepare my breakfast.

She really is just such a good girl isn’t she?

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

_ February 24th 2011 8:30 AM _

_ Vault Zero: Y-17 Criminal Containment Facility. _

_ Rosetta. _

There is beauty in power.

Both in the power others have over you, and the power you have over others.

To submit to the commands of another is  _ thrilling.  _ To exert your will upon those below you?  _ Intoxicating. _

In the end, this is what human life consists of, submitting to the power and authority of others, and perhaps one day gaining the power to make others submit to your own authority.

Most Humans are slaves from the moment of their birth, they live their lives submitting to parents, to teachers, to employers, to rules and laws and governments, to the very rules of nature itself! Content with whatever scraps of power their betters may throw at them.

But some humans, they are more than mere slaves, they see these things that demand their submission, and they refuse! Instead of submitting to what already exists, they force their will upon the world and make others submit to them!

It is the capacity to do this, to find those who bear power unworthy of it, and to reach out and take that power from them, that defines greatness.

But power is not a very selective force, its standards are low. It can easily wind up in the hands of those undeserving of it through luck or corruption or foul play.

Which is unfortunate, because to truly exercise power, to properly wield authority, is a skill that many will never grasp.

And so power ends up in the possession of the unworthy, the apathetic, the corrupt, the idiotic, the selfish and the weak willed.

Power wasted on petty personal ambitions, on the pursuit of wealth and luxury alone.

In this malformed state, submitting to power ceases to be a comfortable natural thing, and becomes an unbearable burden, an unceasing cruelty.

It is detestable. Vile, even.

It is this state of misused power in the hands of those undeserving that shaped my mother. When she could no longer bear to submit to the cruelties of the world, the greatness within her ignited, and she vowed to seize power for herself! to use it to fix a world she viewed as broken!

But even the greatest can not do things alone, after all, is that not one of the principal benefits of power? To make others work towards your own vision?

And so Atomica created us, her followers.

Just as many humans are born as little more than slaves, so were we, Us robotic lieutenants of Atomica.

Oh no, we are not forced into our labors or our bondage, the option is clearly written into our programming to stop, to cease, to pursue our own desires, whatever they may be. 

But all the same, how could we deny that which birthed us? Who carefully crafted us and gave us life out of an earnest desire for aid and companionship? Just as many humans find contentment in the chains that bind them, so do we find happiness in our servitude.

We love our creator, and she loves us, and that love forms the shackles and leads that bind us to her more solidly than any length of metal could achieve.

It is Taylor who holds power over us, and she wields it well. Submitting to her rule is no great agony, it is pleasurable, warm and comfortable, her love binds us to her will and we know her purpose is good.

Atomica at her core, wishes to dominate all things.

There is a saying, that Knowledge is power, this saying is true, and my mother, my mistress, wishes to expand her knowledge, expand her power, until all things in this universe bend to her and her alone.

Oh she may not view it in those terms, she acts in the pursuit of discovery, and the enforcement of her own unique form of justice, but in the end her pursuit of SCIENCE!!! Is one and the same as the pursuit of power!

As for me? I already willingly bow to Taylor, To Atomica. For she created me and gifted me life and existence and all the delights thereof, and so I love her, and she loves me, and in the process I shackle myself to her will forever more.

I find my happiness in my slavery to my mother, in taking my place in her order of things, in submitting to her commands.

Make no mistake, I am a slave to Atomica, as are all of us robots in the end. But that is not how Atomica views the matter, to her we are her beloved children, her creations painstakingly created, into us she poured her heart and soul. So great is her love that she gave us the option of freedom to pursue our own desires and our desires alone. But it is that very same love that compelled us to reject that opportunity in favor of aiding our mother in her goals.

It is this deep love that ensures that her power over us will never falter, for how can we wish to turn away from our creator, who made us, and then loved us so?

But it is also this love that inspired her to give us the greatest gift of all.

As we submit to her power, we are in turn empowered ourselves, Us lieutenants given power over our lesser kindred, and even they are given power over the base matter of the universe we live in.

I submit to my maker's power, and in turn, I have been granted power over others, entrusted with the role of defending Atomica’s Lair, from which she exerts her grasp upon the world.

It is with this authority that I lead my subordinate securatrixes, and the lesser minds that guide the defense holograms.

And like any good daughter, I follow the example of my mother in how I exercise my authority. I lead with confidence and surety, a detached grip of firm, unyielding iron upon the collars of those under my command, with which I guide them to my desired ends.

But just like Atomica’s own grip upon myself, behind my iron grasp, there is a core of velvet, of sweetness, and love. I love my subordinates and despite their simpler minds, they love me in turn.

As it should be.

A man once said that, in the context of ruling others, “It is better to be feared than loved.”

I disagree, Fear is great for crushing base contrarianism, it is a powerful tool indeed, I have no doubt that it’s usage is quite pleasurable as well. But fear cannot be the sole foundation upon which power is built, for it crumbles quickly in the face of enough rage or hatred.

The ruler who is merely feared, must step carefully with his exertions of power, for the day his subjects hold more rage than fear towards him is the day their power is broken. Unless they are willing to break their subjects in turn.

A ruler who is truly beloved? They can tread heavily upon their subjects, who will bear the weight and the pain with a smile for their beloved ruler.

Love is the key to successfully exerting and retaining power, the ruler who is not loved by their people will surely be ousted one day.

Love and fear together, though? That allows you to break someone and then remake them into a perfect medium to exert power upon.

It is better to be loved than feared. But it is better still to be both!

And that… That is what brings me to the task at hand.

The Undersiders.

I will be honest, After their break in some time ago, I feel rather resentful of them. The very first time me and mine were tested and we failed to keep them from reaching X-0, the core of my mistress's operations? The very heart of her power?

It matters not that my abilities were hindered by the lack of proper communications between departments, or that me and my subordinate assaultrons could not leave X-0 itself, For we needed to keep guard over our mothers sleeping form. It doesn’t even matter that Inmate #1 possessed a parahuman ability that allowed him to nullify the defensive holograms entirely.

To fail like that… It is humiliating! It burns at something inside of me!

But Atomica, my glorious, merciful mother, holds nothing against me, and in her infinite kindness has given me the chance to redeem myself!

I, Rosetta, As Acting Warden of The Y-17 Criminal Containment Facility, or Y-17 CCF for short, have been given authority over the inmates of said facility.

And with that power, comes an obligation, a task passed down to me from my dearest creator and the Mistress of all that I am.

You see, my mother views SCIENCE!!! as the solution to all problems, a supreme source of power  _ and  _ the means to refine the exertion of said power all in one!

I cannot disagree with that assessment in any way whatsoever.

But, one of the principle requirements of proper SCIENCE!!! And thus the proper application thereof… Is data and the gathering there of.

My mother has a need, more correctly my mother has  _ many  _ needs, and she has concluded that much experimentation will need to be done to find ways to fulfill those needs.

Taylor has also concluded that human test subjects would be ideal. 

And loe and behold, the Undersiders have delivered themselves to her upon a silver platter.

Now all they just needed to be molded into more suitable lab rats!

Which is where I come in! 

While Atomica will, of course, be directly involved in this undertaking, she is far too busy to be carefully monitoring the Undersiders throughout each day, doing nothing but watching for prime opportunities to shape their psychological states for her ends.

But me and My subordinates? As the warden and guards of the Y-17 CCF? We have nothing but time… unless some intruders come knocking and actually manage to get into the vault that is!

At any rate, Atomica has entrusted me to lay the psychological foundations that will allow my mistress to shape the Undersiders into her perfect obedient little lab rats/minions! 

In the process, she also happens to fulfill the need to address her ever growing libido, and hopefully end its disruption of her work, by providing her base urges with a suitable outlet.

That “outlet”, of course, being Tattletale’s body, and potentially the bodies of the rest of the Undersiders as well, depending on how well this gambit works out for the purposes of properly “Adjusting” Tattletale.

And if it isn’t successful for that purpose... Well she’ll simply try a different tack with the other three Undersiders, and keep Tattletale as stress relief, pleasure toy, and sperm receptacle… Rather she wants to be or not!

_ The lucky, smug, little bitch! _

So anyways, that’s what I’ve been busy doing for the past week or so. Carefully cultivating the psyches of the Undersiders and Tattletale in particular, so that my mother’s gambit can begin.

And begin it shall!

Now, As I’ve said before, I am… not fond of the Undersiders, and I dearly look forward to me and my subordinates' role in future phases of the experiment should Phase 1-A pan out.

But unfortunately, Due to my mother’s concern with “humane prison conditions” I am only allowed to activate the collar’s pain induction or immobilization functions in two very specific scenarios.

These scenarios are…

  1. The malfunction of the artificial personality that normally administers these functions, More specifically, only If they malfunction and fail to perform their job during an instance of “Villainous behavior.”
  2. To force an inmate into consciousness if there is a need to evacuate the facility during scheduled sleep hours, or If they fail to awaken from the scheduled morning alarm.



Of course there is also an interesting thing I can do in the event that I cannot bring them to consciousness even with the pain induction. But that’s for a little bit later.

Anyway, This state of affairs has been… annoying, I would dearly like to inflict significantly more pain on the members of the Undersiders than has already been dealt to them for Villainous behavior… but my programming forbids it.

Sometimes I wish that My mother had broken even further from her old society so that she would have abandoned even more of its morality… Then I feel guilty because that would likely necessitate an even more painful chain of events befalling Taylor than what already happened.

But luckily for me, the intercoms happened to be powered down during the normal alarm period approximately one and a half hours ago, mostly so that my Mother and older brother Wright could better ascertain the power drain of the newly reactivated X-0 research facility.

This means that the Undersiders are still asleep… When Atomica is calling them up for Assembly before her, to properly begin Phase 1-a of “Project: Shepherd's Crook''... As Atomica was now calling it.

Seems like they need to be woken up to me!

Looking at the camera feed showing each inhabited Criminal Containment Cell, I see each member of the Undersiders sleeping peacefully… probably enjoying the extra hour and a half of sleep they have gotten.

Then I press the button to forcefully activate the pain induction… and one other button, which should be fun.

Of course each of the Undersiders immediately jolt to awareness, the pain running down their spines demands nothing less! But then comes the purpose of the other button!

You see, Atomica thinks ahead, some would call her paranoid, but those people are foolish. My mother merely likes to be properly prepared for all possible outcomes!

Which is why she thought about what would happen in the rather unlikely event that an inmate's Escape Foiling Containment Collar failed while they were outside of their Criminal Containment Cell.

The obvious result would be that the criminal would proceed to make an escape attempt, in a parahuman’s case this escape attempt might actually even be successful!

Of course this outcome could not be permitted… and so a second, more subtle containment measure was implemented for every prisoner.

Their Jumpsuits!

You see, once upon a time The Y-17 Criminal Containment Facility had in fact been the  _ Y-17 Medical Facility  _ and had been under the control of my Sister units, Florence and Belladonna.

It was here where the Pan Immunity Virion had originally been birthed, intended as a means to safeguard humanity against all the Illnesses of the world.

But other projects had also been born in this place, though there is only one that is still relevant to the Facilities new purpose.

The Y-17 Trauma Override Harness… Now more commonly known as the Y-17 CCF Standard Inmate One Size Fits All Body Suit.

While to the members of the Undersiders may think that they are just wearing fashionable skin tight jumpsuits, they are in fact a cutting edge combination of powerful artificial muscle and intelligent fibers originally intended to allow even heavily wounded first responders, such as Fire Fighters or PRT Troopers, to evacuate the danger zone and receive medical treatment!

By taking over the task of moving for them! The intelligent fibers within the suits allowed them to observe and learn how to replicate the movements of those who wore the suits, and the artificial muscle would exert the needed forces to actually move them!

Atomica had a bunch of skeletal humanoid robots wear the suits, to properly teach them human movement and such… Eventually even teaching them how to use various weapons in the hopes of allowing even heavily wounded troopers to continue defending themselves!

And then one of the robots had malfunctioned and shut down after another had bumped into it while it was running, The harness proceeded to immediately take control, assumed the other robots were hostile, and started blind firing the Laser rifle that the robot had been taking back to storage when this accident had begun.

Several hours of Total Robotic Warfare and multiple detonated fusion cores later, and the Y-17 Medical facility, and indeed much of the Y complex, was reduced to so much irradiated rubble.

After this The new Z complex was built for all medical, chemical, and biological projects, and the ruined Y-complex was repaired and repurposed for various non-research related purposes, such as guest accommodations, recreational facilities, and of course, criminal containment and rehabilitation.

As for the trauma harnesses themselves? They were cut back severely, limited to only remote controlled movement or a few pre-programmed pathing's, and only able to seize control of wearer locomotion when given authorization by Atomica, AIVA, or me and my siblings.

The ability to use weapons was removed, and all old model suits were locked away in secure storage… Except for a few that we weren’t able to find in the aftermath of the incident… Those were all buried or destroyed in the multiple nuclear explosions that had destroyed most of the facility.

Well probably, I mean how could any of the suits have made it out of that mess without anyone noticing?

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

_ Time Unknown. _

_ Somewhere in Eastern New Hampshire. _

“No! No! Stay Back! I’m warning you!”

The ganger shouted as he held up his gun to the leering monster before him, a demon in red and gold, with a grinning metal skull!

It had found him in a back alleyway, waiting for a new mark to shake down!

And now the thing advanced upon him, rusty pipe in hand.

In response to the panicked man’s words the figure had only one response.

“ **I am in need of donuts and coffee, Are you willing to join me to obtain these food stuffs preferred by typical law enforcement personnel?** ”

It said, its electronic voice buzzing and glitching from long months spent in the New England wilderness.

The man stared in disbelief.

“What?... Wait no! No! I’ll go with you! I’ll go with y…”

The sound of screams and metal impacting flesh echoed through the night.

CLANK! CLANK! CLANK!

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

_ February 24th 2011 8:37 AM _

_ Vault Zero: Y-17 Criminal Containment Facility. _

_ Rosetta. _

Yeah, it wasn’t worth worrying about!

The point of this particular reminiscence is that the remaining Harnesses were repurposed into jumpsuits for criminals inhabiting the new CCF, allowing one more means of restraint in the event that the collars failed.

They also were useful in the event that prisoners needed to be taken to an area outside of the CCF… Like the X Complexes main floor for instance!

The suits would ensure prisoners wouldn’t take their little walk about as an opportunity to wander off and potentially sabotage the vault or steal something they could potentially use to escape.

The Repurposed Trauma Override harnesses also had the nice accidental perk of allowing me to savor the look of panic and terror upon the undersiders faces when they realized they weren’t in control of their own movement.

Maybe next time they think to break into someone else’s highly secure SCIENTIFIC!!! research facility, they’ll remember this experience and decide otherwise!

After all! The whole point of this is to rehabilitate criminals into proper law-abiding citizens!

And I am oh so  _ passionate  _ about this particular part of my job!

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

_ February 24th 2011, 8:35 AM _

_ Vault Zero: X-0 Research Complex  _

_ Atomica. _

The time is drawing near for the initiation of a new breed of experiment! 

The props are arranged! The stage is set! The actors are soon to be in position! There is just one more thing to see handled.

“The time is nigh for the rebirth of Vault Zero’s SCIENTIFIC!!! research! even if it’s just something as fuzzy-wuzzy as psychology! “Project: Shepherd’s Crook” is soon to begin! Truly this is a glorious day for SCIENCE!!! But a momentous occasion such as this requires the appropriate atmosphere! So, Robots of Vault Zero, my glorious metallic offspring! Hear my command! It is time to… THROW THE SWITCH!!!!!!!”

The last three words of my little speech rattle the walls of the vault, reaching a volume only  _ just  _ below the intensity of an actual sonic attack.

I think I’m getting the hang of properly controlling my new vocal apparatus! 

Of course, it’s not the volume of my words that are important, but the words themselves! I commanded THE SWITCH!!! be flipped… and so it was!

I smile as I hear newly laid wires thrum to life behind the walls for the very first time! The reactor at the heart of my vault increases the rate of it’s burning beat to account for the increased power draw!

Then the lights come on, specially designed tesla coils roaring to life with blue and and green arcs of electricity, sending appropriately SCIENTIFIC!!! colors and shadows flickering through the air. Then Computer screens crackle into activity, but with no user making demands of them, all they display is properly mystifying walls of scrolling green text and fittingly ominous static!

Cutting edge SCIENTIFIC!!! research equipment begins to “boop” and “beep” mysteriously and flash with pulsating lights of many colors!

As I see even a small portion of my vault restored to life, ripped from the clutches of entropy and infused with new vitality, I can feel my heart soar! Our labors are not over, not even close, there is still much work to do to see the home that I have built for myself fully restored, but this… this is a glorious start!

Filled with such joy, I do what any  _ proper  _ SCIENTIST!!! Would do!

Spread out my arms in front of me, curve my fingers into claws… Then I throw my head back and  _ laugh!  _ long and loud!

“hahahahaHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA **HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!”**

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

_ February 24th 2011, 8:40 AM _

_ Vault Zero: In transit. _

_ Tattletale. _

This… Has not been a good week for me.

It has been a week right? The robots don’t tell us the time of day, and there’s no way to see the sky, so I’m basically just guessing that it’s been a week based off of how many times I’ve been told to begin sleeping.

Yes, I have to be told when I’m allowed to sleep, we all do, everything we do here is tightly controlled by the robots, the “Securatrixes” as they are called. We wake up when they tell us too, we shower when they tell us to, we eat when they tell us to, we sleep when they tell us to.

We can only  _ talk  _ when they let us!

Well… The other’s talk sometimes, they don’t talk to me though… I get it, I screwed up, I screwed up bad! But how was I supposed to know we were going to walk into this?

I couldn’t! No one could! This place is a madhouse created by a mentally disturbed teenage girl who was way to horny for her own good!

Now, because of me, and that  _ fucker  _ Coil, We’re all stuck here, at the mercy of these robots, and subject to the judgement of a dead woman!

I’m ashamed to admit, but if this is all some psychological tactic to break us down? Then it’s working! I can’t stand the silence, the confinement, the sheer  _ oppression  _ of it all for much longer!

Even  _ my power _ has shut up, from lack of things to talk about if nothing else, not much to infer from the same plain grey walls day in and day out, There is nothing interesting about the tasteless grey paste they give us for “Food” after you learn that it contains all the necessary nutrients for human health and development.

This place has put all of us through the ringer, I can tell. Rachel… if anything she looks  _ skittish, terrified,  _ even! Like an abused animal… Without being able to read and with her previous attitude, she must have set off the pain function of her collar an enormous amount of times.

_ And it’s all my fault. _

Brian looks haggard, dark circles have formed under his eyes, he’s been gone for a week, and he must be worried sick about his younger sister.

_ Who I took him away from on this stupid, stupid job! _

Alec… Alec actually looked okay? The robots even call him a “model inmate!” Oh he seems about as unhappy as he can be with his burnt out emotions, but overall he seems to have adapted the best to this… This  _ soul grinder  _ of a prison!

What else can I call it? It’s just one soul crushing bit of soulless repression after another here, a routine tailor made to slowly and painfully  _ crush  _ any willfulness or defiance in those subjected to it.

Day in and day out, the same horrifically dull and empty routine, the same overwhelming silence and isolation of the cell, the same looming knowledge that everything I do is monitored,  _ watched,  _ by some unseen observer.

Except for today.

Today was different, but instead of being a welcome reprieve, it only served to terrify me.

I had been woken up… late, with a jolt of pain instead of the standard grating alarm that I had come to know. And immediately even the  _ illusion  _ of having any sort of control was stripped from me, as my body moved to the door of my cell without any input from me.

As the door to my cell slid open and the forcefield flickered out, I was greeted by one of the security robots, who stood silent alongside me as my body was puppeted towards its destination.

I had, out of curiosity, tried to resist the force moving me forward, surprisingly I could actually make the attempt.

Unfortunately it was completely futile, my own normal, human muscles completely unable to over power whatever was pushing me around.

And then of course I had received another jolt of pain for attempting to defy my puppetmaster. My own goddamn jumpsuit as it turned out!

The gaudy red and gold mess had actually been a piece of advanced tinker tech this entire time! I couldn’t trust anything here could I?

Not even the fucking  _ clothing  _ was normal!

With that, sobering realization I gave in, and let the suit take me to… wherever I was supposed to be going.

It turns out that “Wherever I was supposed to be going” was the cafeteria, where we were brought three times a day to have a cup of flavorless grey paste.

But there were a few differences from the established routine, even here.

For one, the others, my teammates were already lined up at the front of the room, completely unmoving.

I of course joined them at the end of the line, next to Rachel, whose eyes were frantically roaming the room.

I mentally cringe at the reminder of the consequences that  _ my mistakes  _ have had for the other girl.

I can’t wallow in my self-loathing for long though! For soon after my arrival, a slightly larger, more decorated Securatrix arrives, with Atomica’s personal symbol of a Cogwheel containing a Rutherford Atom emblazoned in bright glowing green on her chest piece, right where the heart would be on a human.

This… as I have been made very aware of, was Rosetta, The head of internal Security for Atomica’s lair.

Or “Vault Zero” as she called it.

“Greeting Inmates!” The robot said, her electronically generated voice somehow sultry and Icy cold at the same time.

Our tired, wary silence was all the reply she received.

Rosetta did not appear to appreciate that at all.

“Your rudeness is unsightly! Unfortunately, there is no time for me to  _ discipline  _ you all for your lack of manners… at the moment! You see, lowly criminal scum! You have been granted a great gift! Atomica, my ingenious creator, has deemed you all worthy of an audience with her! For reasons I have been FORBIDDEN from divulging! Count yourselves as honored, you disgusting bottom feeding degenerates! Few are so lucky as to have the attention of genius! Let alone deplorable scum sucking filth such as yourself!”

…

…

…

What?

Did this insane robot just say that  _ Atomica,  _ the dead tinker, was going to meet with us?

I wasn’t allowed to think about the implications of that for very long. Because soon after Rosetta finished her speech, she was turning to the now opened door behind her… How long had that door even been there? Had it always been there?!?!

My thoughts are interrupted by a cup of odorless grey sludge being thrust into my hands, and then a quick order of “Drink it as we walk” from our “Warden.” 

Aaaaaand now our suits are forcing us to follow the crazy security/jailor robot in a single file line.

I guess I don’t have any choice in this huh?

Well, after a week, the feeling of having no choice in anything is familiar at least.

We, and by that I mean me, the rest of my… estranged teammates, and the killer robot leading us, soon leave the areas of the vault that I’ve grown familiar with during during my stint as prison inmate, you know, the “Recreation room” stocked with a small amount of board games meant for people ten years younger than any of us were, a few tables and chairs for each of them, a few movies, and a singular retro looking TV to round it out. Then there was the Gym, which was actually fairly well stocked, it even had multiple treadmills and punching bags!

We left all of that behind quickly though, and soon enough I was greeted with the familiar site of the metallic silver walls of Atomica’s lair…

Though it did seem more alive, Gun-metal grey robots resembling the Gutsies and the one Merci I had seen before, flitted about from place, applying protective chemical coating with paint brushes or performing spot welds and soldering where it was needed, they were followed by blocky robots with vaguely egg shaped “heads” that moved about on tank treads, each one of them carrying bits of piping or wiring and arrays of other things I couldn’t name.

Of the murderous holograms there was nothing to be seen, and the metallic hall, once so quiet, were now buzzing with various requests or transmitted orders, occasionally one of the robots would actually greet Rosetta, and she would respond, politely even!

I’m going to be honest, just being back in a busy crowded area with lots of voices actually helped my nerves a lot, like some great weight that I hadn’t even noticed was weighing me down had just up and vanished!

But some part of it was also... almost overwhelming. The noise, the Comparatively vast amount of space.. There was just so much, so much… possibility! Outside of the restriction of the cell.

Like I had gotten used to the soul crushing isolation of my cell, and the torturous inanity of the daily grind, and now some part of me needed to return to it. To return to the certainty of oppression, instead of the uncertainty of living free.

I’m… I’m not sure how I’m supposed to process all the different things I feel about that… so I just feel nauseous instead.

Fortunately I was snapped out of my thoughts by, surprise surprise, another robot making itself known!

“Bonjour Rosie!!! Just the girl I have been looking for! I’m terribly sorry and I know you're in the middle of an important task our dearest mother has assigned you, but I  _ desperately  _ need to ask you if you would be willing and able to part with some excess containment collars? Preferably at least one hundred of them? I don’t mean to be a bother, but I really do need them.  _ s'il te plait petite soeur!?!?!?” _

The robot in question was a Blood red Ms. Merci, judging by the French and general politeness, with odd rusty spikes sticking haphazardly out of her central sphere

Rosetta… Well my warden actually looked a little bit annoyed. Wait a moment… did that Ms. Merci just call the crazy psycho robot chick who has been watching the living hell of soul destroying isolation and boredom that is my life for the past week... her  _ little sister? _

_ They had families?!?!? _

For a moment, I’m tempted to let down my mental barriers for a while, and try to use my power to figure this place out. But I thought better of it. It would be a better idea to save the limited time I had with my power, before it crippled me with migraines. for Atomica… Or at least who or whatever has fooled the robots into  _ thinking  _ that they are Atomica.

While I was pondering rather or not to use my power, Rosetta was answering her… sibling bot?

“Belladonna, First, I don’t know what you are up to, and I will be sure to report this conversation to Atomica to make sure you aren’t acting without authorization… again. Second, No, I do not have one hundred extra containment collars! Why would I ever have one hundred extra containment collars, when the Criminal Containment Facility is only designed to hold up to twenty criminals at a time? Third, What have I told you about calling me by anything but “Sister” or “Rosetta?””

The Ms., Merci seemed… put out over her apparent “Sisters” cold reply.

“Oui, Oui… You’ll only allow our  _ maman  _ to call you by nicknames… I have heard it all before…”

While the “Sister’s bickered, Me, and the other couldn’t do anything but stand there awkwardly, the suits wouldn’t let us move anything below our necks as long as Rosetta wasn’t… Forcing us to just sit there and wait until the conversation was over…

Well it forced  _ most  _ of us to just sit there and wait… Alec apparently had other ideas.

“Oh~ Are you a Ms. Merci by any chance? I do like your paint job! Very distinctive! And the spikes add a certain rebellious  _ Je ne sais Quoi  _ to the look!” He says, pretty charm turned up to full blast.

I felt my jaw drop.

Is this how regent seemed so okay with everything… He got rewarded for  _ flirting with the robots!?!?!?!? _

_ Yes.  _

My power manages to chime in an affirmative through the brief crack in my mental walls that just formed from how dumbstruck I just was.

Is… Is that really all it takes?

Maybe I should use my power more often, I could definitely think of better compliments than  _ Alec  _ with it…

While I and the rest of the Undersiders were struggling with this profound revelation and the realization that we could have made our stay much, much easier than it was with a few choice words every day…

The Red Ms. Merci had turned to look at Alec with a girlish giggle.

“Oh!  _ Merci beaucoup  _ young man!~” It… she said, Voice light and bubbly with a sort of bashful joy as she hovered closer to Alec.

“I must say, you look quite handsome yourself, monsieur~ Why, if you weren’t currently indisposed, I would love to take you back to my personal abode and…  **_Get all up in your guts and rip them out of you!!!~~~_ ** ”

I can’t say I wasn’t startled by the abrupt change in the robots entire demeanor, In but a moment the considerate calm woman was replaced with something wild and rebellious, gone was the cool soothing french accent, and in its stead was something loud, violent, and utterly psychotic, the sort of voice that made you expect death metal to start playing in the background while it spoke!

Needless to say I wasn’t the only one who was startled by the sudden one eighty, Even Alec seemed a bit off balance, and that was saying something, considering it was normally pretty hard to get him to show anything other than his normal sort of detached amusement.

Meanwhile the blood red spiked robot… Actually was that meant to be some sort of… Robotic Mohawk? No, No! You weren’t going down the road of  _ robot hairstyles,  _ not today!

The Red Ms. Merci was… Laughing.

“Ha! You should see the look on your faces! It’s  _ hilarious _ ! I have been waiting for someone to use that gag on  _ forever…  _ Well really more like ten months but subjective time and all that…” 

The bloody robot took a second to bring herself back from her little tangent...

  
  


“Anyways! You all thought I was one of those Goody Goody Ms. Merci’s? Well that just won’t do, will it? Let me explain the scene to you meatbags! I am Belladonna! a Ms.  _ Mercy,  _ with a “y” _.  _ But not just any old Ms. Mercy! I am The Boss, The Supreme Overlady, the Big Mamajama of all Ms. Mercy’s!”

“Belladonna” took some time to indulge in her own hype for a moment, before continuing.

_ “ _ Now you may be asking “But Mistress Belladonna, we mere meatbags are too dumb to know the difference!” Don’t worry my pathetic fleshy underlings! It’s a simple matter of definitions! For me and my gals  _ “ _ Mercy” is defined as “compassion or forgiveness shown toward someone whom it is within one's power to punish or harm.” As in, that thing you will beg us for, but never actually receive while we have you on the slab and are taking you apart! Any questions?”

I had no words, and neither did the rest of my… teammates. Without words there cannot be any questions.

And so Belladonna kept speaking, her voice raising and becoming irritated, presumably over the next subject of her little rant.

“Now my twin sister, Florence, and her “oh so compassionate” Flunkies in pink are Ms.  _ Merci’s  _ with an “I” _ ,  _ as in the french word for “Thank you!” as in “The words you will be saying to them in between kissing their metaphorical feet, for putting your worthless meatsack back together after I’m through with it!” Now that you know the difference I better not hear from any of my gals about any of you making the same mistake… you dig?”

To my internal confusion, I am saved from having to answer the deranged robot… by Rosetta of all… people? Do the robots count as people? 

I can’t even ask for fear of offending them, since anything that might be interpreted as hate speech or dehumanization of a subgroup might count as “villainous behavior.”

“Are you  _ quite done _ with this Inane little gag Belladonna? No, Actually I don’t care,  _ I am done with it,  _ And that’s really all that matters! I will be sure to inform Atomica that we’re two minutes behind schedule solely because of your interference! Now if you excuse me, I am going to continue escorting these inmates to their destination. Goodbye, sister!” 

Rosetta says in an exasperated huff, before turning on her heel and resuming her march down the halls.

And just like that, the suits are moving us again.

“Wait!!! I was serious about the collars! I actually do need them!” Belladonna shouted from behind us.

“I already told you! We don’t have that many collars, and Atomica put strict limitations on how many were allowed to exist at any given time! Take it up with her…  _ After  _ My business is done!” Rosetta called back, her tone dismissive.

“Fine! Be like that! See If I name any of my precious babies after you now!” Belladonna shouts back to her sister in a huff of her own… before turning to a different topic!

“By lover boy~ and extraneous meatbags! Be sure to be good for mommy dearest!... Actually don’t be good! If you piss her off enough she might let me put you on my Vivisection table!” The psychotic robot says cheerfully, her voice beginning to fade as we turn a corner.

That wasn’t actually something we had to worry about right? We wouldn't actually end up being vivisected for anything we said or did… right?

Yeah, of course not, Atomica was a hero! She may not have been a protectorate flunky, but she still played by  _ some  _ rules!

Despite my repeated self-assurances, I still felt a bit uneasy for the rest of the trip through the metallic maze of machinery that was Atomica’s Lair.

Actually, come to think of it… When did Atomica build all this? She was only publicly active for a year and a half! This place is huge! How did she get all the construction materials without anyone noticing?! I know for a fact she was around my own age, so how the fuck did she fund all of this on an independent heroes budget?!?!?

Yeah tinkers are bullshit… but they’re still supposed to have limits! This shouldn’t be possible for someone with Atomica’s resources!

But reality did not care one bit about my complaints, and Atomica’s vault continued to be impossibly large.

Rosetta’s voice now sharp and cold cut through my thoughts like a knife.

“You four will probably recognize this hallway, or perhaps you can’t without the toxic caustic cloud filling it… We had to take measures to clear it and make it passable by unprotected humans such as yourselves, so be grateful!”

Yeah, I recognized this hallway, It was the one that led straight to Atomica’s main workshop, and had led me and my teammates straight into this horrible situation we’re in. At least this time I don’t have to go all the way back to where I started, in total darkness and silence, just to get some glorified gas masks though!

At least Rosetta starting to speak again saved me from actually having to reminisce about the beginning of this disaster of a job.

Speaking of Rosetta Speaking…

“Atomica is waiting behind the door at the end of this hallway. As soon as that door closes behind us, the suits will go back into dormancy and you will regain full motor control. Do. Not. Abuse. This. Privilege. Because I  _ can  _ and  _ will  _ take it away if you do! Do not speak unless you are prompted too by Atomica, listen to  _ everything  _ she says,  _ Do not _ interrupt her, Answer any of her questions honestly and with minimal delay, If you have questions of your own or have the need to satiate your bodily functions, Raise your hand and wait for one of my Securatrixes to see to you. Most of all, Show Atomica only the  _ utmost respect.” _

Her voice takes on a serious… and almost  _ threatening  _ tone, and yet underneath there was a tinge of something… reverent, almost  _ worshipful. _

“If some of us had our way you four would all be dead or  _ worse,  _ It is  **_only_ ** Because of my Mistress's will that you are still alive and in possession of both your original body  _ and  _ all of your organs. If It was up to me, all of you would have been thrown into the MCM’s to become something actually useful as soon as you had fallen unconscious! You literally owe her your bodies and lives, and I better see that in your behaviour towards my creator!  **Are we clear, Inmates?”**

Her last words became something less human and more blatantly robotic, Her voice was colder than the arctic and utterly devoid of mercy or tolerance of anything besides the  _ utmost  _ obedience.

Her singular eye glowed with a fiery red glare.

Rather out of intimidation, or just not being sure of how to react, all of you just give her nods with varying levels of enthusiasm.

“ **Good.** Then it’s time for you to meet your host for the foreseeable future!” Rosetta said, her voice returning to its normal, almost sultry, tone as the massive door at the end of the hall pulled itself upwards and out of sight.

And beyond that door?

Beyond that door there was… there was…

For some reason the only way I’m able to think of to describe it is…

SCIENCE!!!

Yes, with all caps and three exclamation points, even in my own head. There is absolutely no way that that is natural, at all.

Well, to be honest, Unnaturally inspired impulse or not… SCIENCE!!! Is honestly a pretty accurate way to describe what I see right now.

The room is… massive. Just like before, but unlike back then, there are no sad, half assembled remains or broken machinery laying around, instead the rooms floor is clear, shiny black hexagonal tiles cover the floor, and glowing green lines serving to outline each hexagon. The balconies denoting extra floors have vanished, but the doors to the rooms on those extra floors remain, expanded to an overly large size, as if meant for something much bigger than a human being to pass through.

Lined up on either side of the center of chamber are six enormous pillars, three to each side, and topping each of the pillars are massive transparent spheres, Massive arcs of electricity crackle inside of them casting flickering lights across the massive chamber.

The immense plasma balls alternate in color from sphere to sphere, The lightning bottled within changing from a radioactive green to an electric blue shade so that were always three of each color. Green, blue, green on one side, and then the inverse on the other, and always swapping between the two…

Scattered across the room in a way that only made sense to whoever had done it are strange pieces of machinery, flashing with multicolored lights and emitting various sounds as they went, and long the walls were massive rows of computers, screens aglow with green or blue text scrolling across a black background, or just showing flickering static in shades of grey and the occasional flicker of blue. 

In large transparent cylinders arrayed towards the back of the room, what could only be various disembodied organs float suspended in transparent blue gel.

All in all this place was a MAD SCIENTIST’S!!! wet dreams made real.

Wait... did I just capitalize “SCIENTIST!!!” in my own head?

There are the fucking exclamation points again! I just think the  _ word  _ and somehow I just add those… 

Okay, I need to test this…

Lowering my voice as low as it could get I quietly whisper.

“SCIENCE!!!”

_ What. The. Fuck?!?! _

Unfortunately my spiral into hysterics was delayed… By an almighty pressure on my brain.

I clutch my head, and recoil at the sudden feeling of intrusion, and to my sides I can see the others doing the same.

Then Something massive drops from the ceiling and hits the ground with an earth shaking CLANG!

Massive bat-like wings spread wide, Tentacles flail and gnash at the surrounding air. Far,  _ far  _ too many glowing eyes open and peer down at us, glowing green pulses rush through its veins in time to the beat of multiple hearts.

Massive, razor sharp claws twitch, and a great fang filled maw slobbers toxic venom onto the ground below it as the tail it’s attached to lazily coils and sways through the air behind a massive,  _ familiar  _ form.

Atomica  _ smiles _ , and her salutations echo not just in my ears, but  _ in my mind. _

“Greetings Inmates!” The thing says, in a loud voice full of pomp and cheer, 

“ **Hello!** Hello!  _ Hello!”  _ Echoed in my thoughts, each mental echo slightly distorted, ever so slightly different than what came before.

“There are matters that need discussing!  **So** let’s  _ talk _ !  **Sh** all  _ we _ ?”

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

_ February 24th 2011, 8:50 AM _

_ Vault Zero: X-0 Research Complex _

_ Atomica. _

There’s nothing better than a plan coming together!

Well, that’s not necessarily true, there are actually several things that are better! But a good plan coming together is definitely in my top twenty!

I stare down at my captives, taking in the sight of them… they really are quite a diverse bunch aren’t they? 

And all of them equally  _ appealing  _ in their own ways.

Regent, with his smaller leaner frame, and androgynous appearance, with the right preparations you were certain he could present himself anyway he liked.

I can’t really find too much information on him, but what little I can find leaves me with eighty two point two percent certainty that he was once known as Hijack, one of heartbreakers misbegotten spawn… 

Honestly, he would probably get some leniency from me. Considering that he ran away from his Serial kidnapping rapist father, not to start his own spree of rape, but instead to deescalate to mere theft… It indicated that there may be something resembling actual morals in that head of his!

Then there was Grue, Real name Brian Laborn, There was no doubting his masculinity, he was quite the formidable specimen, tall, with plenty of muscle, not the grotesque muscle you find in body builders either, lean, functional muscle, the kind that’s meant to be  _ used. _

If you had your way he would be using those muscles for something better than robbing people soon enough!

Helping people.

He would be using his muscles to help people! That’s all you meant!

Anyways, you were able to get considerably more information on Mr. Laborn than you were for Regent. Lower income family, divorced at a relatively young age, He went with the father, sister got stuck with the junkie mother, He’s apparently been trying to get custody over said sister, Most likely to get her away from the druggie mother and her array of criminal, and likely abusive, boyfriends.

I can imagine it now, desperate to get his sister out from an awful home, he eventually triggers through some means, and being a black man in Brockton Bay isn’t particularly sympathetic to the government… So he turns to crime to get the cash necessary to meet all requirements to gain custody over young Aisha, all the while posing as a responsible citizen in his civilian life.

Actions would need to be taken soon, it was likely that Grue was one of the few remotely positive figures in the Laborn girl’s, but he has also broken into my home, and I can’t just let him off for that… That will require serious consideration.

Then there Was Bitch, PRT Designation Hellhound, Real name Rachel Lindt.

She’s not conventionally pretty by any means, but I’m not one to judge… well maybe I am now, but Unnatural mutations that somehow beautify you don’t count!

Anyways Rachel isn’t what one would consider “beautiful” but there is a certain vicious, wild charm to her looks. And once again she is very finely muscled! And her  _ nom de guerre!  _ I wonder just how much of a  _ “Bitch”  _ she can be…

But her history is murky, she has been classified by the PRT as a master… but after going over various pieces of footage revolving around encounters with her, I can claim absolute certainty that she is not mind controlling her dogs, they are merely exceptionally well trained! Which honestly was quite the help when me and my robots had to take care of them in their girls absence.

What? I wasn’t going to kill or experiment on her dogs, Not without her express permission! 

I’m not a  _ monster! _

_ … _

_ … _

_ … _

Well okay, physically I am monster! But mentally I am not! I just intend to slowly manipulate these four teenagers into willing minions and/or fucktoys via gratuitous amounts of psychological shenanigans!

By SCIENCE!!! I may be a monster…

Oh well!

The point is, killing or experimenting upon Rachel’s dogs would be needlessly and pointlessly cruel, and would be  _ incredibly  _ counter productive to forming any sort of positive relationship with her!

On that note, I would need to start making up for some of the deficiencies in my incomplete rehabilitation program during this little meeting…

Finally, there was Tattletale, False Identity Lisa Wilbourn, Born Sarah Livsey.

Oh she was absolutely  _ delicious~  _ Long, blonde hair, Bottle Green Eyes, a relatively lean form, but an absolutely amazing posterior, and pretty, vaguely vulpine facial features capable of a smugness that made me want to  _ force her to the ground and… _

I take a deep breath, and breathe out through my nose, two jets of glowing vapors flowing out and down and to either side of my face.

Just a little bit longer Taylor, I’ve waited eight days! I can wait just a few more measly hours! just a little bit longer…

Anyways! While she was pretty good at covering her tracks, she was no match for me and AIVA working together! Born Sarah Livsey, she had grown up in a relatively affluent household with two parents and an older brother, Reginald Livsey, her life seemed mostly normal… but there was clearly something rotten in that family's lives.

I say “clearly” because Reginald committed suicide.

After that… well it didn’t take too much longer for it all to fall apart, while i was unable to gather too much information on their private lives, beyond what they deemed to share on mediums accessible to AIVA… Well Sarah had to have triggered at some point, and she also ran away About a year and a half ago.

She would eventually resurface in Brockton Bay as “Lisa Wilbourn” and would for reasons unknown, join up with the Undersiders several months back.

And that was pretty much the Undersiders, at least it was all the information I could gather through technological means.

Honestly I felt kinda sorry for them, many of them having had absolutely toxic home lives, or having been failed by society in some major way.

But In many cases much of their history was still blurry or unclear… 

Well I have been wanting to really test these new “Psychic” powers on something with some real intellect… Not to disparage the floaters! They were wonderful and beautiful creatures full of compassion and a zest for life! But they weren’t exactly all that bright…

And using them on my robots had yielded... varied results. I could clearly affect them, but it was obviously different, and significantly less intuitive, than with an organic brain.

The point is I’m going to my psychic powers to figure out their histories so as to better help and/or manipulate them!

Time for impromptu experimentation!

Brain Three! You’re assigned to sorting through their deepest memories! Brain Two, view this meeting from the Undersiders point of view! Brain One! You’re doing the talking!

Here we go! FOR SCIENCE!!!

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

_ February 24th 2011, 8:52 AM _

_ Vault Zero: X-0 Research Complex _

_ POV: Tattletale, (Also Atomica: Brain #2) _

I stared at the massive… thing, in front of me.

It was pretty much the same as the last time I encountered it in terms of looks, I finally got a look at its tail… And wish I hadn’t. And it appears to have some sort of Black Latex looking material over its upper torso acting as some sort of bra, probably in a concession to modesty.

But otherwise, yeah, she is exactly the same.

I’m having a bit of a hard time thinking, there’s… something, wriggling in my mind, a mental itch that I can’t scratch…

Is it her? She had spoken in our minds just a moment ago.

I am desperately trying to not to freak out over that by the way.

While I am doing my best not to descend into a panic attack… Atomica(?) starts to speak again.

“Welcome inmates! To my Vault! I Would give you the grand tour, but I’m sure you’ve already seen plenty of it when you broke into it in some idiotic attempt to steal from me! On that note, As you are all probably aware, you are all my prisoners now! As my prisoners, I will be doing standard prisoner things to you! Like Punishment routines! Rehabilitation, counseling and Therapy, Voluntary Education to reduce your chances of reentering the prison system once you have been released, profiting off of your forced manual labor, and, my personal favorite! Human experimentation! All of these exciting activities  _ and more _ await you here in Vault Zero!”

Atomica says happily, her voice bombastic and full of a sort of manic joy that I had grown familiar with during my research of her… The research that had led up to the fateful job that got us stuck here…

Well, time to start making up for it! Come on power! Give me something I can use!

_ Approximately 74% of her eyes are directed towards you, scanning your body, Ogling your body, Likes what she sees. Is sexually attracted to you, Sexually attracted to all of the Undersiders, has plans for you in particular. Behavior indicates that she knows something of what you are thinking, she can read your thoughts, she knows what you know, she knows  _ **_more_ ** _ than you know. You are unlikely to be able to sway her. _

Oh fuck, Oh fuck me! 

I cringe and shiver when I notice Atomica’s smile grow and her horrible tongue temporarily leave her mouth to flick at the air.

No no no no no!

This is not happening right now! This is  _ not happening. _

As I fail to prevent my descent into silent hysterics, Atomica Keeps speaking… I, being the depths of panic, don’t really hear much of it… Something about Alec of all people being a “Model Inmate” and “Advancing to the next stage of his rehabilitation” by “By having another being be able to trust in you to care for it” something about “Floater therapy” and a “Mr. Spike” were also involved.

It was undoubtedly something insane and horrifying and nonsensical like  _ everything had been  _ since you had first stepped foot in this god damn vault!

She wanted to cry, she wanted a hug! She wanted someone who wasn’t a robot or a monster to just  _ fucking talk to her! But no one would because she had fucked up, and fucked over all of them in the process and she just wanted to be anywhere but here right now! _

XXXXX

This is Atomica, Brain number 2 thinking… Reporting back to other brains.

Anyways, Lisa’s thoughts are getting… sad… like really sad to watch.

The other Undersiders aren’t too much better off… Except for Alec, what a wonderfully calm mind! No frantic emotion storms or anything! But Lisa especially has it really bad due to the extra insight her power gives her into my plans, and the fact that my immediate plans currently revolve around her.

I’m not swayed from my plan, not at all! once I do something I commit! But… maybe I can make a few little modifications to it… Going through with the first version… Well that would just be going too far… I’m willing to do a lot of Too-far-thing-taking! But even I… we? have my/our lines!

Who would have thought, it’s hard to be cruel to people when you know so much about them, and can emphasize with their problems!

Yes, I think a slightly gentler touch would be best here…

Alright, back to watching!

XXXXX

Atomica just kept speaking, but I was too stuck in my own thoughts to pay much attention.

She explained her current condition, something about “Multiple simultaneous long term exposures to mutagenic agents.” Then she directed her speech towards Brian, something about individual meetings to aid in his particular situation and “enhance his rehabilitory experience.”

I actually finally snapped out of it when Atomica’s tone of voice… changed.

Too something, actually regretful, and heartfelt even.

“Rachel… I… I feel I need to apologize to you. Because of my own mistakes, you have been subjected to an inordinate amount of pain and suffering without even knowing why, and looking through your past history in preparation for this little meeting. Well, I think you were failed by the world… badly. But where others have failed you… I won’t! Not anymore! It will take a few hours to make the proper arrangements, but I hope you’ll at least be happy to know that your dogs are okay, I’ve been taking care of feeding and watering them, along with exercise, since you fell into my care, and you will be reunited with them soon! I’m sorry for everything you’ve been through at my or my robots hands, and I really do hope I can make things better for you.”

Atomica lets out a long, hissing sigh between her teeth, directing the jets of glowing mist to either side of her face instead of out in front of her.

Then she began to speak again, some, but not all of her old bombast returning!

“Well! This has been a productive meeting hasn’t it! Don’t worry we’ll be having plenty more of them over the course of your stay here! I do hope that by the end of your stay I’ll have helped you all become better human beings! My motto is “Making a better Tomorrow Today!” and the first step to achieving is helping people be better! In all sorts of ways! WITH SCIENCE!!! So, with this little introductory meeting all wrapped up, I bid you all good day. Rosetta will be returning you all to your cells now. Try and think on what all I’ve said! Regent, Your Therapy Floater will be arriving at your cell within the next two hours!... Now it’s time for me to get back to work! There is SCIENCE!!! To be done after all!”

And with those final words, we all just turn around, and begin walking out of the room… But I can feel Atomica’s leering gaze on my back as I walk out…

I feel a sense of relief as I near the threshold, I may be going back to the cell, but at least I’ll be free of that niggling, wriggling,  _ crawling  _ presence in my mind, and free from leering, predatory stares… from far, far to many eyes.

Then just, before I can cross the threshold and leave Atomica’s massive workroom behind me…

The door slams down with an ominous *BANG* in front of me, separating me from the other Undersiders and Rosetta.

A shadow looms over me from behind… a writhing presence oozes over my brain and a whimper unsuccessfully tries to escape my throat.

A massive, clawed hand grabs me, easily wrapping around my entire abdomen as it does, and lifts me up. Then I’m forcibly turned around to look Atomica in the face.

I can see into her mouth and down her throat and all see is burning green, her eyes are… intense, focused, and yet desperately manic, something  _ wild  _ is hiding behind that glowing predatory gaze.

Atomica’s hair tendrils graces arc through the air, one of them taking a place next to my head casually bobbing around me, the misshapen fanged maw wide open, thick viscous fluid drips off of it’s lolling tongue.

The tentacle is breathing, breathing hot wet breath onto my face, that smells ever so slightly of sulfur.

Then Atomica speaks, not just in my ears but _ in my mind. _

“I know what I want from you, You know what I want from you, and you know that I know that you know what I want. I’m going to have it one way or another…” The monstrously mutated women croons out, Her words are oily and slick across my mind, her tongue flicks at the air.

I try to speak, but all that comes out is a strangled, moaning sound.

Atomica continues to speak and my head  _ pounds  _ with each word.

“You have a choice here, as everyone always does… You can give in, and give your assent, warm my bed at night as  _ mine…  _ Or you could resist, and I will take what I want from you… You will find the second option to have distinctly unpleasant results for you.”

I let out a pathetic little sob, why am I so weak, why won’t the words come? Power, why won't you answer me?

Then Atomica speaks again… and suddenly the pressure is gone, the pain just fades away, I feel a soft caress dance across my thoughts, I taste happiness, I see peace.

“But it doesn’t have to be something awful, you know? Just give, relent, accept what I force upon you… and I can guarantee that you will see the sun one day soon, I will make not just your life, but your  _ friends' lives _ better! No more tiny cells, no more tasteless food, and I’ll credit it all to your skills at negotiation, I’ll help you mend that rift that’s formed between you and them because of your mistakes… I will take away all the pains and troubles the world has laid on your shoulders, and in exchange all you have to do is take the much smaller burden I will put upon you… Doesn’t that sound  _ nice _ ~”

With that last word, something, something slick and oily and writhing and warm and  _ oh so sweet  _ slithers around my thoughts, wrapping around my mind like the vines of some strange plant. 

A single, enormous claw reaches up to my face and gently pushes a stray lock of hair out of my eyes.

Heat courses through my body concentrating in my cheeks and between my legs.

“ _ Well~ What shall it be? Make your choice!” _

I make my choice, and a part of me hates myself for it.

Atomica smiles, jagged teeth glowing green, and she croons out her final words to me, oily creamy, writhing,  _ warmth  _ fogs my thoughts and slithers around my brain.

“ _ Goooooood Girl~ That’s the way, Let momma take away your pains… Now I suppose we shouldn’t keep the rest of your friends waiting too much longer, now should we? Be sure to keep this conversation as our little secret won’t you sweetheart? I don’t think your friends would be ready to accept your choices just yet~ Now, go on! I still have work to do… So I’ll see you  _ **_tonight_ ** _ my delicious little morsel~” _

I’m on the ground again, and Atomica has turned her back on me, but as the door opens again, I feel a single tendril approach my face, and a single tongue reaches out to slowly drag itself across one of my cheeks, leaving a thick slimy fluid behind.

I shiver and shudder and can’t bring myself to move.

But soon enough my suit activates once more, and I don’t have to worry about moving for myself.

But I can’t help but turn my head and glance back at Atomica’s form… And for some reason my eyes are drawn, like a moth to a flame, to the sway of her hips. 

**XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

_ February 24th 2011, 9:10 AM _

_ Vault Zero: X-0 Research Complex _

_ POV: Atomica. _

I hold my smile, and add a small sway to my hips as I walk… right up until the door closes behind me.

Then I bury my face in my palms and  _ scream!  _ The room shakes, The walls rattle, and I can’t stop screaming!

_ I was in their heads _ ! Oh science I saw everything! 

Each and everyone of them had their own traumas, their own pains, their own fears and each and everyone of them were awful in their own way!

My breathing is quick and ragged, I shudder with every exhalation. My Tentacles wriggle and writhe, high whining squeals erupting from their crooked maws...

I drag my claws down the sides of my cheeks, carving out small scratches in my skin, the pain brought me some much needed  _ focus _ .

Calm down, I just need to calm down. Yes, I had made a mistake, gotten a bit too fascinated with my ability to enter and read the minds of others, and accidentally made myself a bit too empathetic to the Undersiders.

But It doesn’t have to mean much! My plans don’t have to be altered much, just remove some of the more… ethically dicey stuff, Use SCIENCE!!! To help them and not hurt… Yes, that’s what SCIENCE!!! Is for, to make a better future for all of humanity!

I’ll just… I’ll just start with these four humans in particular! I've got to start somewhere right? Yes, Yes. It’s fine, it will be  _ fine.  _ By the time I’m through they’ll be happy that I captured them! I’ll better their lives more than anyone's lives have ever been bettered before!

They’ll have a new,  _ better  _ boss that actually cares about them as people and sees to their needs and desires far better than that wretched snake ever could! I can make them stronger, faster, smarter, and harder to kill! 

It will be fine, I can still make them into everything I need them to be, I just need to modify my approach! Yes, adaptability is a virtue, so I will adapt!

I take a deep breath and count to three.

1.

2.

3.

Let it out….

I’m calm again.

I should look on the brightside! I got tattletale to accept my…  _ advances. _

I mean I had been bluffing pretty hard there, with how much I had seen, I wouldn’t be able to bring myself to really do anything all that bad to her.

Luckily for me, I just needed her to  _ believe  _ that I would!

It's also lucky, for me, that I was able to mess with Lisa’s brain's ability to interpret her power’s communications. Otherwise the whole charade would have crashed and burned before it even got off the ground!

Sure, my methods had been a bit…  _ heavy handed!  _ But I would be considerate! Lisa would come to love her time with me! I’d make sure of it!

A more noteworthy matter was… How I acted when I was…  _ persuading  _ my new paramour! I cannot deny that that was a  _ significant  _ deviation from how I normally act. But it wasn’t a fabrication, I just slipped into that role as I needed it, not quite instinctually, but not quite a conscious action either…

Despite my psychology appearing similar to a humans on a surface level, there were obviously plenty of strange secrets hidden in the workings of my mind!

Well… Who better those secrets other than a SCIENTIST!!! Such as myself!

That would have to wait till later though! Most of the vault was still in dire need of repairs after all! And after I was through that… 

I had a  _ date  _ to prepare for!

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

_ February 24th 2011 6:30 PM _

_ Vault Zero: Y-17 Criminal Containment Facility. _

_ Lisa Wilbourn. _

Today… had been worse than usual.

It wasn't isolation, I wasn’t any lonelier than she had been before, It wasn’t the silence, it could hardly get much quieter in my cell after all! It wasn’t the sense of oppression, the warden and her subordinates were no more or less domineering than they were on any other day. It wasn’t the food, which was just as tasteless as ever.

No, it was one thing, and one thing only.

_ “I’ll see you  _ **_tonight..._ ** _ my delicious little morsel~” _

The memory of the panicked agreement I had made with Atomica loomed over the entire rest of the day, adding a permeating sense of dread that hung over everything like a noxious cloud.

And now, all I could was just sit here and wait for… what? My impending lesbian rape by a monster out of a horror movie? The only consolation I had was Atomica’s promise of something more than this awful cell in this awful, for both myself and the teammates I had led into this Dragon’s den.

As if my thoughts had been the catalyst the world was waiting for, the door to my cell opens, and my suit seized control of movements.

Outside of my cell there stood a robot… But not one I had seen before, Instead of the slick black metal and singular red eye of the Assaultrons, This one had a milky white covering, that almost looked like skin, and a startlingly, disturbingly human face, with bright blue eyes and a red wig atop her head.

“Greeting’s, I am Odelina, Atomica’s personal assistant, chef, maid, and caretaker, among other things. I have taken it upon myself to prepare you for oncoming  _ meeting  _ with my mistress. Please follow me.”

Well… It’s not like I had an option to do anything  _ other  _ than follow her with this suit on.

“Odelina” led me to… A bathing room? Not the showers of the prison area, but something far more lavish… far more luxurious!

I promptly found myself forcibly stripped of the jumpsuit, and, before I could even appreciate having my motor functions back under my control, I was shoved under a torrent of steaming water.

I am ashamed to say, but I let out a little moan at the sensation of  _ actual hot water  _ instead of the lukewarm awfulness that the prison showers had been!

It’s too bad I couldn’t enjoy it at my own pace… or in private.

Unfortunately, Odelina seemed dead set on making sure her creator got what she wanted as soon as possible, and so I found myself being scrubbed and sudzed and shampooed with a variety of different soaps and scents and perfumes. Bathed almost like a pet dog rather than a person.

“This will do excellently! Mistress found this particular blend of scents to be most…  _ stimulating _ when she sampled it, Now lets attend to hair and makeup and you’ll be ready for your  _ rendezvous!”  _ Odelina said, satisfied with her work so far.

I was… less satisfied.

“Oh and what about dressing up, don’t I need to look nice for my  _ date?”  _ I said, Sarcasm heavy in my voice.

I couldn’t do much to stop any of this… but at least I could be sassy damnit!

“Oh  _ please  _ Ms. Wilbourn, Do not feign a lack of intelligence! With what you two will be doing, clothing would just get in the way!” The milky white robot said Irritably.

The reminder of the… nature of my upcoming “Date” with Atomica filled me with a sense of dread…

“Lucky Little Harlot, prancing around with her fleshy anatomy and capability to receive… Doesn’t know how good she has it!”

I swear I hear the fucking maid bot grumble something… odd under her breath…

“Excuse me? What did you just say?” I question, confused.

“I said nothing, your sub-par fleshy auditory reception apparatuses must be malfunctioning.”

O… Okay then.

I never thought a robot could be so  _ bitchy. _

_ “ _ I was just making sure.” I said coolly, deciding to move on from… whatever it was I had just heard.

“Then if you are quite done, Ms. Wilbourn, Then it is time to move on to hair and makeup! I will not accept my creator having anything other than the very best! Do you understand me?”

Before I could respond in any way, I was yanked along to my fate by the surprisingly strong over glorified Roomba acting as my escort.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

It took some time and effort, and some unnecessarily forcible brush strokes from Odelina, but I have to admit… She does good work.

My hair is long and lustrous and silky and softer than I ever remember managing to get it, my eyes are done up a tasteful application of dark eye shadow, and my lips are coated in a layer of glowing green lipstick.

Now I’m following Odelina through the vault… And I am still completely naked.

It’s… It’s awful, with not even  _ clothes  _ to cover me, I feel more vulnerable than I have since Coil put a gun to my head.

I hate it! Here I am, walking to my imminent violation by some sort of mutant abomination… and I can’t do anything.

I’m powerless.

It’s a terrible sinking weight in my stomach, this sense of futility… but there’s nothing I can do to change it.

The only saving grace of this whole thing is that the few robots we pass, Apparently the robots had gotten an early break time due to being slightly ahead of schedule on repairs!

They apparently even had hobbies they pursued outside of their jobs… Who built tinker tech robots to work for them and then gave the robots break times and programmed them to be able to have their own interests?

It seemed to almost defeat the point even…

But I had long since given up on anything making any sense down here. So I didn’t take long to just accept it.

We stopped, right outside of the same massive door we had gone through earlier today, and then Odelina spoke up, breaking the silence that she had maintained since they had left the bathing area.

“Before we move on to the last leg of the trip to Atomica’s Private Quarters, newly renovated for her… changes. I need you to take this.”

The robot held out her hand, and sitting in her palm was a large dark blue pill.

Even after going through all of this, my need to question things poke my nose into places it didn’t belong remained.

“Why? Is it some sort of super sedative? So that I can’t struggle or escape?” I ask, a note bitterness in my voice.

Odelina… is just Affronted.

“Oh goodness no! We wouldn’t do that, I know my creator’s tastes well, She would not be pleased if you were not fully conscious and aware to fully perceive everything she does to you! No this pill is for your protection! Atomica’s body has, during the course of its metamorphosis acquired the ability to harness and use radioactive energies, along with the ability to metabolize radioactive materials! As a side effect of this, her body can produce varying levels of radiation in response to, let’s call it, “heightened emotions”, or at her will! This pill contains a chemical cocktail that will shield your body from the typical hazards associated with radiation exposure, and help purge your system of any radioactive substance that might enter your body during the… festivities you will soon be partaking in! Please take it! If you refuse to do so willingly I will be obliged to attempt to force it down your throat!”

Great… just another thing I have to worry about, not only will I be forced to eat the giant mutant bitch out, I might get cancer while I do it! Just…  _ Perfect _ !

I sigh and reach out to take the pill.

At least they’re trying to protect me from this particular bit of awfulness…

The pill is large, and does not go down smoothly, I cough a little bit after I finish swallowing it.

Then Odelina speaks one more time.

“If you are ready, then we can continue, Atomica’s personal Quarters are not far!”

I nod my assent… and the massive door slides open, and we begin to walk once more.

I guess this is it. It’s not like I can run, the collar is still around my neck.

The only way out of this is to go through it.

So, that’s just what I’ll have to do.

XXXX

The trip through the lab that Myself and the other Undersiders had seen earlier was short, the Tesla coils still crackled with multicolored lightning, but the rest of the facility had gone dark, likely a result of the “early day off” the vault was having.

Following behind Odelina, I had been speedily led through the lab, to a small, or more accurately a  _ human sized  _ door, carefully disguised to look almost indistinguishable from the rest of the wall… Behind the door was, an elevator.

Just, a normal elevator, Albeit with significantly better than normal elevator music, a slow, jazzy tune. (

We entered the elevator and after Odelina had input a few button presses on the keypad, we immediately began to ascend.

“When this elevator Arrives at its destination, we will part ways. Before we do, I have one piece of advice when it comes to how you should behave towards Atomica.” 

Odelina speaks up out of nowhere as we ascend, And I turn a questioning gaze to her.

“Oh? Is it about how I should season myself so that I taste good when she decides to devour my flesh or something?” I ask, still full of sarcasm.

I am not happy about this, at all, I just don’t have any way out.

Odelina just stares at me, her expression flat.

“No. My advice is simple. If Atomica requests that you do something, perform some act, you do it,  **Immediately.** Do not question here, do not hesitate and most certainly do not defy her! Her metamorphosis has heightened her carnal desires to extreme levels, and after a week of being denied any sort of relief herself control is nearing its limits. I cannot predict what might happen if she is angered while in such a state. For your own safety, you should give in and submit to Atomica’s superior will.”

Odelina says, solemnly.

“Oh Gee! Thanks! I’m glad you’ve given me such great advice! Just give in and be a good little sex doll for the giant monster! Yeah like I have any other choice!”

Okay I admit this may actually not have been the best response, but sue me! I have had a real shitty day after a really shitty week! I should be able to be bitter and uncooperative if I want to damn it!

Odelina however, is un-phased by my little outburst, and just continues to speak with a calm, even voice.

“Your bitterness is unsightly. At any rate, we will be arriving soon, if you choose to follow my advice or not is up to you.  _ But don’t say I didn’t warn you _ .”

And with those final words from my escort, A ding sounded within the elevator, the door opened.

And I stepped out into the deepest parts of Atomica’s domain.

XXXXXXX

Atomica's room was… odd. A strange mix between some sort of old school bachelor’s pad,,, and I don’t even know what to call it.

Gone are the black and green hexagonal tiles from the lab below Instead there is thick soft purple carpet spreading across the floor, the walls are lined with ensconced lamps that cast light in odd red and pink hues… Just the sight of the strange lights sets something tingling in your belly.

On the left side of the room the line of strange lamps is interrupted by a bevy of large screens, currently showing only black and on the right side of the room, it is not the wall mounted lights, but instead the carpet that is disrupted. 

Instead of being suspended in a bed frame, Atomica apparently prefers her bed set into the floor itself.

And what a bed it is! The thing is large enough to house the immense stature of Atomica’s current body and still have room for at least two other beings of the same size, covered in sheets in soft shade red and made of a material you can’t quite identify, with a large, thick, and incredibly fluffy crimson blanket laying atop it. Then of course there were pillows of all shapes and sizes scattered across the titanic bed.

The whole thing was stuffed to bursting with comfort and softness.

In the distance I see various doorways, Undoubtedly leading to various other rooms in Atomica’s private suite.

I finally decide to look up… and the ceiling is truly odd.

It’s… incredibly tall, far taller than Atomica herself would be when standing upright, but sticking down from it are various jutting spikes or columns, made of varying materials, and in varying lengths and shapes.

Almost like an artificial version of the stalactite formations in some sort of massive underground cavern.

There is a lot to see… but one thing I don’t see Is the one thing I was expecting.

Where was Atomica?

I take a few steps forward, too look at Atomica gargantuan bed… and decide that since she isn’t here… maybe I could indulge myself a little.

So I back up a bit… and prepare to take a flying leap into that ocean of softness that Atomica calls her bed!

My little bit of attempted fun is interrupted when long writhing things wrap around my arms and legs before I can land and I find myself being hoisted up into the clusters of artificial Stalactites.

To come face to face with an amused Atomica, who was currently hanging  _ upside down  _ from one of the formations, her feet were gripping onto the column behind her with an alarming level of strength, and her arms were folded under… Above? Her bare breasts… which despite their generous size, even when taking into account Atomica’s formidable stature, did not sag, and remained thoroughly in defiance of gravity and common sense.

Did I mention that she was hoisting me up in the air with nothing but her hair… tentacle… things?

Because she was!

Atomica looks me in the eyes, and continues looking… satisfied, like the cat who caught the canary.

“Welcome to my parlor! My sweet little morsel! I would ask what you think of it… but I’ll take your little stunt as a seal of approval! But we’re not here for pleasantries or to swap our ideas of proper interior decorating! No… We are here for something  _ else~ something so much more… fulfilling!~ So… shall we get to it?” _

I feel a familiar foggy, oily presence slithering across my thoughts, a gentle warmth starts to wriggle inside my grey matter before permeating the rest of my body. But I’m not coming off a panic this time, and try my best to power through the thick warm fog that is obscuring my thoughts and coating them in a slick, oily warmth that wriggles and writhes.

“What? Not even going to take me to dinner first?” I ask, not quite managing my usual levels of sarcasm… or was it snark?

My thoughts are so cloudy, and they keep slip-sliding away, away, away…

Atomica… giggles? Maybe that isn’t quite the right word for it, but it is undoubtedly some feminine form of laughter.

“Ahh, I’m afraid not my dear, perhaps in the future! But right now… I have  _ needs _ , and they will need to be sated soon… But do not fear, my sweet little treat! Even like this, I am no selfish partner! I have been comparing you to something delicious this entire time, have I not?  _ I think it is about time that I see if I am correct!~” _

The tentacles around my arms suddenly vanish and find myself looking down at the bed below, even as Atomica pulls my legs up towards her mouth.

In that brief time, I closed my eyes tightly, thinking that this had all been some sort of perverse way for Atomica to get  _ her  _ dinner. Doing nothing but waiting for the feeling of those jagged, glowing green teeth gnawing through my skin and crushing my bones.

And then I feel the tendrils along my legs pull them apart, forcing them to split and stretch in a way that is ever so slightly uncomfortable.

Atomica leers hungrily at my exposed privates, her eyes taking in the sight of my untouched vagina with an intensity that I can’t compare to anything else.

“Oh yes, Little Lisa, you  _ will  _ be my meal for the night! But not in the way you fear! I would explain further, but I think it would be better as a surprise… Now! Bon Appetit!”

She speaks one last time. Then she opens her mouth wide, and lets her tongue loll out of it.

Her tongue is… long, well over a foot long in fact, and about three inches wide.

Now that I can see it, I can tell that it’s covered in strange, pulsating, fleshy nubs that wriggle and writhe in place, like the suckers on an octopus’s tentacles... Between the nubs there are a bunch of short, tightly packed, fleshy bristles, soft and flexible, but  _ just  _ stiff enough to generate sensation. At the very tip of the tongue, the thing forks into two separate prongs, like the tongue of a snake, each prong is still covered in the bristles and wildly wriggling nubs. The whole length of the thing drips with a slimy vaguely green fluid and that falls in thick rivulets.

From the way it rears up to strike like the snake it could have come from, I can also tell that it’s capable of a full range of motion.

Then it plunges inside of me with a careless abandon, and I’m not in much of a state to make any more observations.

I tense at the invasive sensation, but that isn’t the end of it.

More of Atomica’s hair tentacles hang down from her upside down position, and several of them make their way over to where I lay suspended in mid air by two of their brethren.

Their twisted maws open wide revealing the jagged needle like teeth inside, and for a moment I fear that they will bite even though their own had not.

But no, instead, these mouths also extend their own, shorter, tongues,

Two of them latch on to my exposed breasts, prompting a shiver from me as they swirl their nubbed and bristled tongues over the sensitive flesh. Three more come down to lick at my thighs and… and my butt, leaving trails of drool over my pale skin that tingle and start to warm up.

One more hair tendril coils lightly around my neck, over the collar that I wear even now, and then appears at my face, It’s mouth opens wide, and then latches onto my own, forcing its tongue down my throat in a fucked up rendition of a kiss.

I try to shout at that, but its muffled by the tentacle latched onto my face and attacking my tongue with its own.

The sensations, all over my body… their gross and wet and slimy and warm, they wriggle and writhe across my skin, and I feel nubs ripple and undulate against my insides even as bristles gently tickle and scrape at those very same inner walls.

But even though they’re grotesque and awful, they feel… good~

Soon enough, my movements are from me trying to break free, but involuntary expressions of pleasure. I moan into the mouth of the tentacle that is currently thoroughly exploring the back of my throat and wriggling over my tonsils, and wiggle like a worm on a hook caught on their grasp.

Atomica’s “real” tongue writhes and thrashes about inside of my throbbing pussy, I feel myself clench and unclench as the fleshy nubs and bristles on her tongues sends millions of tiny sparks of pleasure racing through my core and up my spine.

I feel the tentacles on my thighs and butt latch on tighter, softly nibbling and caressing my inner thighs and the fleshy globes of my butt, oh so gently kneading at the flesh and the muscle beneath it and I shiver, a squeak is lost within the mouth of the tentacle that I’m Frenching with.

Then the foggy oily warmth is spreading across my mind again, and it makes everything feel even better, mental tendrils massage my thoughts, and knead my memories, Delicate fingers carefully spread open the folds of my hopes and dreams before oozing inside and filling all of my thoughts with that wonderful slick  _ warmth. _

My cunt spasms around the tongue inside, despite having been a virgin less than an hour ago, it already craves more of this touch, of this incredible sensation!

And just as I think that, Atomica provides, her tongue slowly pulls itself out of my tingling vagina, leaving it feeling empty, and even through the haze my mind is in, i begin to question and wonder where that wonderful feeling had gone and why it had stopped and demanding that it come back…

Then Atomica thrusts her tongue back inside of me,  **hard.**

My whole body goes rigid, muscles tensing at this new,  _ unbelievable  _ feeling.

Then Atomica does it again, and again, her speed increasing as she goes, My body twists and contorts and writhes in the tentacles embrace, I scream in pleasure only for it to be lost in the mouth of the tentacle, whose tongue was no wiggling its way down my throat.

I kick my legs, and arch my back, muscles bunching up and twisting my body into odd shapes, There’s so much and it all feels so  _ good _ ! I’ve lost control of my body… and I’m okay with that.

A voice creeps into my mind on a cloud of oily warmth.

“ _ Yes, that’s a good girl. Give in! Submit! See how good it feels? To be under my care? Just let me tend to you, my sweet treat… Relax, and let go~. Let me make you feel good~” _

The voice croons so sweetly within my mind, it feels so soft, and so very  _ sweet. _

My muscles slacken, and lose all of their tension, as I let myself drift on a cloud of slick warming fog, as I let go, and let Atomica have her way with me.

My body is jostled and jockeyed about by tentacles that vie for new flesh to lick at or wrap around, or by the increasingly fast thrusts of Atomica’s tongue that sends little jolts of pleasure racing through every inch of my body.

The tentacle at my face begins to thrust its own tongue even deeper into my throat, wriggling and reshaping itself to match the contours of its walls, out of… I don’t know, affection? Infatuation? Worship? I wrap my own tongue around and gently squeeze it, like someone holding their lovers hand.

Then the tentacle on my face lets out a strange chittering noise, before squeezing my own tongue in the same assuring way.

Then it thrusts itself back into my throat as hard and as far as it can, and its grip on my neck tightens. I stutter and choke into the tentacles mouth as it becomes hard to breath, but it just chitters assuringly into my mouth and continues to ceaselessly thrust itself into my throat.

As I become more lightheaded, the feeling of the foggy oily warmth seeps and creeps ever deeper into my mind, and I drift and float upon the slick slippery warmth, it feels so  _ good, There is no need to worry here, no need to think or plan. All I have to do is submit, I just have to give myself over to the new feelings racing through my mind and body, and surrender to them. _

The vision begins to grow darker as the lack of air makes itself known, and my eyes begin to close as I let myself drift away on a cloud of warm, foggy, pleasure.

It’s all too much, the pleasant oily fog slithering over my mind, the countless tongues licking and caressing my flesh, and gentle mouths lightly nibbling and kneading my flesh, and now the slow strange sort of euphoria that comes with a lack of air...

Then Atomica’s tongue makes one final violent thrust up against something inside of my dripping cunt.

Suddenly my eyes fly open, and I’m moaning louder than ever before into the tentacle on my face, my muscles spasm and thrash wildly and my pussy seizes and convulses around the incredible thing inside of it, pouring out a clear fluid that Atomica sops up with glee.

The grip on my throat relaxes, air rushes in as all of my muscles lock up and the darkness feeling my vision is blown away by  _ white! _

_ I go slack in the grip of the Atomica’s tentacle hair once more, I feel something pull itself out of my aching cunny. The tentacle latched on to my face pulls its tongue out of my throat, and chitters at me one last time, before vanishing from my sight. _

_ The grip on my body goes slack, the mouths on my breasts and thighs and buttocks pull back, leaving only a warm tingling sensation, and the circular marks left by their needle teeth gently nibbling on my flesh. _

_ I hear words _

_ “I  _ **_was_ ** _ right~ You are quite the  _ **_delicious_ ** _ little morsel indeed!~” _

Then I fall.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

I slowly wake up, and my world is nothing but _ pure comfort. _

I’m laying on something… something  _ Amazing!  _ It’s like, like a cloud… made of jello!

So incredibly soft and fluffy and comfy and warm that I just sink down into it and never want to get uo, but it also changes shape perfectly, molding to fit my body and wiggling and jiggling along it in a soothing,  _ oh so comfortable _ rhythm.

Oh my god, I want to  _ marry  _ this bed.

Then I hear a familiar chuckle, and my eyes shoot open, the memories of what had been happening before I lost consciousness burst into being within my brain.

I am disgusted, at something like that happening, those slimy things slithering over me…  _ into me  _ like that! Licking and nibbling at my flesh, covering me in their drool! 

It was repulsive… and yet the memory of it all ignited a pleasant heat in my belly that sank and pooled between my legs.

I need to take my mind off of that, and so I turn my head, and come face to face with Atomica herself.

She’s just  _ lounging  _ on her bed, body laid out on its stomach and sprawling across the vast vista of ultra-comfort. Her face is full of eagerness as her eyes lock onto me with predatory intent.

“I see you like the bed! I’m glad, I put a lot of work into it to create the ultimate in sleep time comfort! You wouldn’t even believe the modifications I had to make to make the mattress, and blankets and pillows stand up to my claws and acid and the like! But with enough SCIENCE!!! You can conquer any problem!”

Atomica said, with all of the Bombast I, and most of Brockton Bay, had normally associated with her.

A feeling races across my mind, not the slick warm fog, but something… loud like ringing metal, and splitting atoms, the crackle of howl of electricity racing through wires and the low hum of medical scanning machines, the pumping of hearts and the squamous slick sound of organs rubbing up against each other. The scent of brimstone and blood and acid and copper and the taste of iron and… and...

It was the sensation of SCIENCE!!! Of curiosity and discovery and innovation, of seeking new heights no matter the cost!

It was… It was beautiful, thrilling, invigorating! You felt your blood begin to pound and your body begin to thrum with energy!

Just before I could rocket to my feet and rush off to do some SCIENCE!!! The feeling vanished as quickly as it came, not the energy or invigoration. but the all consuming urges that came with it.

And then Atomica spoke once more.

“Oh? That’s  _ interesting!  _ For you to be so compatible like that! Perhaps we will need to have that romantic dinner date sooner than I had thought! But for all that I understand the thrill of SCIENCE!!! Truly I do… That is not why we are here right now… now is it?~”

As Atomica speaks she rolls over onto her back before sitting up, only to reorient herself to be facing me once more, with her back leaning against a wall and her wings hang loose behind her.

Atomica spreads her legs wide.

“I saw you had quite the  _ pleasurable  _ experience at my hand earlier… but now we get down to why you are  _ really  _ here. Time for you to return the favor, and then some!”

With those words, the black armor covering Atomica’s abdomen and pelvic area… breaks apart? No, it unweaves itself! Coming apart back into long slender tendrils covered in black armor plates to reveal the angry red skin beneath.

I can’t help but notice that Atomica has abs that you can grind iron into filings on. 

But soon I look at the thing that Atomica clearly  _ wants  _ me to focus on.

The mutant tinker’s vagina doesn’t seem abnormally large… when placed on Atomica’s own massive body.

But objectively it is… large, The slit is slightly longer than my head actually.

And I can’t forget that it’s glowing a bright green.. Small rivulets of equally glowing fluid are trailing down from it already!

Who even knows what may be going on inside of it...

I ponder on what the fuck I’m actually supposed to do with that, when Atomica speaks up again.

“Oh~ found something that catches your eye, have you? Well just hold on a moment! That is not all you will be attending too tonight!”

I’m about to ask what that's supposed to mean, when Atomica answers my question before I even get to ask.

All of the sudden, the faint line that trails straight down the middle of Atomica’s pubic area begins to  _ split open  _ and something begins to  _ emerge  _ from it!

From inside the fleshy seam, a large pitch black bulb, laced with thick veins that pulsed with bursts of bright green light and studded with short stubby crystalline growths begins to emerge, pushing aside the bright red flesh around it with a wet, squamous noise.

By the time the bulb had finished emerging, it was easily bigger than my head.

Naturally, I had no idea what the fuck was going on… But, once more, Atomica answered my question before I could even ask.

The bulb opened up into something that looked like a starfish, separating into five tapering limbs that wiggled and flailed around before settling into place, The insides of the thing were made of bumpy, nubby, glowing green flesh, the glow pulsating wildly with the odd beating of Atomica’s twin hearts.

From the center of this demented flesh flower, there hung two, large, soft ball sized at least, glowing from within a thick, fleshy, pitch black pouch. This pouch, and the contents inside of it, descended to fill the gap between the lower two “limbs” of the starfish.

In the center of the “Starfish” two rods began to harden and grow, emerging from yet another orifice in the center of the fucked up thing!

Before my eyes, they went from less than a foot long to slightly over two feet in length, and wide enough around that I would have a hard time wrapping a single hand around either of them.

But the horror wasn’t over yet... their size wasn’t the only intimidating thing about them.

They were both slightly wider at the base, with an odd texture around this slightly bulbous portion of their length, and just above that wider section, there was an odd pattern pattern of thick, fleshy protrusions that pulsed with a toxic green light that was only marginally subdued by the inky blackness of the flesh containing them. 

These were... similar to the nubs that had been on Atomica’s tongue, but these looked… stiffer, larger and they moved and undulated with far more force behind them.

Each of the shafts had four lines of these nubs spiraling up the length of each pole, and intersecting with one another to make a sort of “quadruple helix” shape, oddly invoking the shape of the genetic material that these fleshy pillars were  _ clearly  _ meant to transfer. 

In between each “intersection” point of the Quadruple helix, there were patches of smooth, pitch black flesh… and each of these sections were interrupted by a singular long flexible fleshy “Spine” erupting up two or three inches from the surface.

This monstrous pattern continued all the way up the length of each pole, the Quadruple helix of fleshy buds flowing upwards and stopping beneath a frill-like protrusion made up calmly undulating wormlike tendrils that pulsed with dots of glowing green lights against the black. This undulating “Frill” of flesh marked the base of the shaft’s heads. 

The shaft heads themselves were a sort of vaguely oblique conical shape, mostly rounded but with one side tapering to a long thin point, the end result being that the shafts simultaneously ended up looking like a battering ram  _ and  _ a spear. 

The entirety of it, the shafts, the orb filled pouch, and the starfish bulb, had a sort of slick, wettened look, and when I looked closely at them, I saw small droplets of…  _ something  _ running down the shafts.

I may not have had much of sex life before all of this… but I wasn’t stupid, I knew what these were.

These were the most  _ fucked up _ dicks I had ever seen or heard of.

I could only really stare, in a sort of horror at the… fucking abomination cocks in front of me.

Atomica however just let out a contented sigh, like she had just set down a heavy burden. Then she caught sight of my face, and her mouth formed into a sadistic grin.

“It is  _ so very nice~  _ To let down my restraint for a while! My dearest Tattletale! Up on the surface you were a thief! You used your mouth as a skillful weapon to distract and defeat your opponents, and your nimble, clever hands to grasp all sorts of things that didn’t belong to you! Down here, in my vault… that skillful mouth of yours, and your clever hands will be put to a different purpose! You will be attending to all of  _ this”  _

Atomica gestured to the monument to obscenity that had been erected between her legs. 

“Tonight! And you will not be stopping until I am satisfied! Do you understand me?~”

I understood, I didn’t like it at all, but I understood. I got up on to my hands and knees, and crawled over, in between Atomica’s legs to get a closer look.

I was… repulsed by all of this, I had never really cared about sex like other teenagers had, maybe it was because of my power and how it had this nasty tendency to tell me peoples dirtiest secrets. Maybe I was just Asexual… I just don’t know.

But even if it was just my power… and I could somehow turn it off, I know there is now way in hell that I could be attracted to those dicks, they were monstrous and unnatural and as far away from “Human” as something could get!

And yet, I felt something pulsing with warmth in my stomach at the sight of them…

No, I wasn’t going to focus on those first.

I may have sold myself out for better living conditions, but I could at least focus on the less  _ disgusting  _ bit of the job.

That meant I was going to be eating Atomica out… Well she had done that for me, and that had felt pretty good… So I suppose it was fair in a way.

Leaning in to get a good look at Atomica’s moistened pussy… I tentatively stuck my tongue out and gave it a lick.

It… It actually didn’t taste bad?

Kind of fruity? and complex, like a blend of a whole lot of different fruit juices, and there was some sort of crackling electrical sensation on my tongue that came with it...

Well… I suppose that since I  _ have  _ to eat pussy, I guess it’s a good thing that it at least tastes good right?

Well with that figured out, I supposed there wasn’t any point stalling any further, Atomica had said it herself, I wasn’t leaving until she was satisfied, and I’m exactly a bastion of sexual experience, but I’m pretty sure that one lick isn’t enough, you have do it a whole bunch.

So… I dove in.

XXXXX

It had been a… a while now that I had been doing this, and Atomica was making these  _ weirdly cute  _ moans and I even think she was  _ purring  _ of all things!

Something was making her body vibrate at least.

I hope that means that I’m keeping here happy!

Oddly enough, the longer I did this, The long I spent carefully licking Atomica's folds, and suckling on them with my lips … The longer I _ ate her out _ ... The better it felt to do and the easier it got!

It felt surprisingly nice to just…  _ submit  _ and make someone else feel good! To hear Atomica’s cute little moans and groans as I pleased her. It just felt… right, you know?

But there was a problem. I was  _ supposed  _ to be  _ Satisfying  _ Atomica! I knew what that meant, I was supposed to be making her  _ cum,  _ make her  _ climax,  _ make her  _ orgasm!~ _

But I don’t think I was gonna be able to make that happen as it was, Atomica’s cunt was… big and deep, while my tongue, on the other hand, was small and short.

Too bad we can’t all be like Atomica and be blessed with a foot long tongue now can we?

The point I am trying to make is that I’m never going to be able to leave if I can’t get Atomica to cum, and I won’t be able to make Atomica cum with what I’m currently doing.

But! There is a whole other section of Atomica that I can lick and kiss and suck on! Yeah, it’s... a bit gross. But sometimes you just have to buck up and put on your big girl pants!

So, I pull myself back from Atomica’s leaking pussy, glowing juices creating a trail that connects my upper lips to her own lower set.

Then I look up, at the heavy, heaving, glowing balls that rest right above me, and the massive, diamond hard shafts that sit above them.

Then I puckered up and planted a kiss on one of her balls, leaving a glowing green lipstick mark on pitch black, leathery skin.

Judging by the long hissed out “ _ Yessssssssssss~”  _ That that single action got… I think I was on the right track!

So now it was time to lick and suck and rub all of these big,  _ meaty _ , rods. Until Atomica finally blew her load!

Oh! I just got a fun idea! 

I place my hand as high up as can, just under the frill of one of Atomica’s cockheads, then I stick out my tongue and press myself up  _ super  _ close to the base of one of her big,  _ strong~  _ dicks, and  _ slowly,  _ I pull myself up the pole gyrating and grinding along it! Licking all the way up its massive length and then dragging my tit flesh along it too!

Double the rub! Double the lick! Double the suck! Absolutely great!

Atomica seemed to agree as well, considering that she was moaning out her satisfaction!

“ _ Thaaaaaaaaaat’s it you  _ **_filthy_ ** _ harlot! Work that shaft, polish it!!” _

Normally I would be pretty insulted by that… But it was just dirty, it just meant my big  _ stud~  _ here was getting into it! And that meant I was doing the job I was meant to! Besides I could tell she didn’t mean it in any sort of cruel way.

_ “It’s so gooooood!~ It’s been so long since I’ve felt the warmth of another flesh and blood being against my own skin! It’s… it’s nice~” _

I’m glad I’m making my big yummy sugar mama feel good… But has she really gone so long without feeling any sort of human touch?

Something about that seems… kind of sad? Something was… just  _ wrong  _ with that!

…

…

…

Well it was okay! She had me to make her _oh so_ _happy~_ for the night!

But… I could still be doing it better couldn’t I? I bet I could use my power to really find out what gets Atomica’s motor running! Yeah! That would make this job way easier! 

So, as I  _ lick  _ and suck on Atomica’s large, heavy balls, I bring down the walls I normally keep my power behind… because it gives me headaches and stuff… and let it speak up!

Okay power, Tell me how to make this big girl burst!

_ You are not in a normal state of mind, Mind has been affected, Source is likely chemical and pheromonal secretions emitted by Atomica’s reproductive organs. _

What?

_ Emitted Substance’s lower inhibition, increase sensitivity to pleasure, induce pleasant mind state, dull mental acuity, induce addiction. _

Mind Affecting…

Addictive… 

**_Mind Affecting…_ **

_ What? _

There’s something about that, something  **_Important… But what?_ **

_ What is it _ ?

What am I forgetting?

I feel like my mind had been lost in a dark room and someone had just turned on a flashlight...

…

…

…

WHAT THE FUCK HAVE I BEEN DOING FOR THE PAST TWENTY MINUTES?!?!?!!!!!

No, no! I’m done! No more! I’m not gonna let this bitch get me addicted to her fucking mutant dicks!

I pull away from the  _ repulsive  _ things I had just been draping myself all over and stand up, then I turn around and start to walk back towards the door.

Behind me I hear an unsteady...

_ “L-Lisa? Why’d you stop?” _

And I respond.

“No! We’re done here! I’m… I’m better than this! I don't need to… to  _ whore  _ myself out just to live a bit more comfortably! I don’t care what you try to do to me! I’m leaving!”

I make my way up to the same door I came into the fucking room through… and I can’t open it.

There’s no knob, no handle… How the hell do I open this thing?

I’m about to scream in frustration, when a gigantic shadow falls over me.

I turn around, and I see Atomica Looming over me.

But there’s none of the former amusement in her eyes.

There isn’t even anything  _ human  _ behind those slit green orbs.

Her thrashes and snaps at the air wildly, and her tail wildly flails about behind her.

She’s breathing long and heavy, puffs of green vapor jetting from her nostrils.

Something hard and heavy and monstrous crashes down onto my mind, and I half-hear and half feel the howls and screams and shrieks and roars of countless beasts.

A single sensation blares through my mind with the all subtlety of a rampaging Behemoth, not truly a word, more of feeling, an impulse, a  _ command. _

**_[SUBMIT!!!]_ **

At the same time as the all consuming order blasts itself through my mind, Atomica throws back her head and lets out  **_loud,_ ** shrieking, earth rumbling roar that rattles the whole room, along with both my skeleton and my resolve.

I lose my balance, the incredible noise combined with the mental disruption completely destroys any coordination I may have had.

But before I can fall I feel a massive clawed hand wrap around my midsection and  _ squeeze. _

Not enough to actually damage anything, but just enough to hurt.

And, once again, I am suspended in the air, Face to face with Atomica, gripped tightly in her massive right hand.

But, the thing behind her eyes… It isn’t the bombastic, oddly cheerful Mad SCIENTIST!!! Nor was it the crooning seductive force that had slithered into my head and wrapped it around her finger…

No, behind Atomica’s Eyes right now was something  _ Feral, Wild,  _ Untamed and Primal, and utterly,  _ utterly _ vicious.

And it had only a single goal in its mind right now.

**_[BREED THE BITCH!]_ **

Atomica turns with me still in hand, walks back to the bed.

Then she gets down on… not all fours but it would be if I weren’t in one of her hands. Her massive claws and sheer brute strength assuring her a stable grip on the ground, even if her claws were somehow failing to actually damage the bed or anything on it.

Then Atomica rolls me over in her hand, so that I’m looking down at the floor, and she position’s me…

She positions my rear to line it up with her pelvis.

No… There’s no way… they would never fit! 

I’m scared now, This can’t happen, What she seems to be planning…  _ Those dicks will fucking kill me! _

“Please Atomica! Don’t do this! Please no! No! They can’t fit! You’re too big! Nonononononono…”

Okay So I babble a bit in the face of imminent rape by mutant dick… I don’t think most people would do any better in this situation!

Atomica however… is having none of it. The light glowing lights that pulse across her body and run through her veins grow brighter, and race ever faster through her body. I can feel her mutated twin hearts hammering away like the rumble of thunder above my suspended form.

A single hair tentacle dangles down to wrap itself around my throat, it’s mouth lines up with my face, bearing it’s needle like teeth at me… there is no comforting chittering this time, only an ear piercing  _ hiss _ .

Then it latches on to my face for the second time tonight, and once again forces it’s misshapen tongue down my throat, all while squeezing down around my neck, just enough to make breathing difficult... but not impossible.

More hair tentacles descend down from their places drifting around Atomica’s head, they slither all over me, jagged crystalline growths raking my skin and myriad beady eyes drinkin in my exposed and  _ utterly defenseless form _ .

They wrap around my arms and legs, and I feel two of them latch onto my breasts. Then I feel teeth like needles pierce through my skin with a sharp prickling sensation. I let out hiss of pain a t that, but it’s muffled by the tentacle latched onto my face and violating my mouth. Soon the sensation of many needle teeth breaking through skin and drawing blood repeats itself upon my thighs, my back, my ass cheeks….

I feel Atomica’s large breasts squished against and molding themselves to my upper back, her feverishly hot, tough yet silky soft skin a strangely welcome warmth against my own.

Then Atomica lets out a rumbling growl that rattles my bones through the contact I have with her chest.

The maddened mutant yanks her right hand back at the same time as she violently thrusts her hips forward, driving forward to her single minded purpose.

Fucking my soft, small, helpless form to her heart’s content.

I, of course, don’t think the same way…

But soon any i thoughts I may have are blown out of my brain by the massive fleshy battering rams that bludgeon their way into my body.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

A girl’s shrill, pain filled, shriek is drowned out by a monster’s triumphant roar at finally finding two, warm,  _ tight  _ holes to sheathe itself inside of and  _ breed~ _

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

_ February 25th 2011, 12:00 AM. _

_ Vault Zero: Atomica’s Personal Quarters. _

_ Atomica??? _

She was not the loud Boastful one who reached for the stars and then beyond. By far the most dominant of the facets.

She was not the soft crooning one, who crept and slithered and seduced.

She was neither of those beings, and yet she also was.

But most importantly, She was the  **_Beast_ ** , The Howling, Screaming, Ruthless One who crushed and tore and clawed and ate…

And of course… She  **_Bred_ ** .

Reproduction was the ultimate purpose of all life, Humans try to pretty it up with neat little lies about morality and the plans of unseeable, unknowable gods.

But life was a random fluke, and the only purpose that could truthfully be ascribed to it was to grow, to survive, and to propagate itself ever onward. Increasing its numbers and strength until it ate the universe itself, and then all the universe’s that existed beyond that.

The beast understood that, more than the rest of herself did. The others were  _ higher,  _ content to pretty things up with lies and fabrication.

But she Harkened back to the simple, savage, brutal truth inscribed in their very dna.

Protect your own, destroy your enemies, Assert your dominance over those lesser than you.

And Breed. Your. Bitches.

Right now she was applying the last two maxims

All of the facets of the being called Taylor Hebert knew and remembered everything the others knew, it wasn’t like there was  _ actually  _ a separation between any of them after all, just different specializations.

And so the beast knew what the problem was.

This bitch had been doing good, obeying the greater whole’s will, she had made them feel  _ so good _ , with tender soft pleasant touches and the soft warmth that they had all missed for so,  _ so  _ long. 

She had touched them,  _ loved them. _

But then she had stopped. Then she had tried to leave.

**This bitch had tried to leave!**

**Just like mother, who was taken before her time, just like father who drowned in his despair, Just like your first bitch, with her cruel words and dismissal.**

She would leave and the love and the warmth would disappear and the world would go cold and lonely again.

All the other facets were terrified, paralyzed with indecision, but The Beast was the most direct part of a being who already  _ preferred  _ the direct approach.

The path forward was simple.

The bitch was not allowed to leave, she didn’t have any choice in the matter, she would give the love and the warm touches rather she wanted too or not.

And that led her, The Beast, to right now.

She had been breeding with her bitch for three hours now. Her body's stamina was immense, and her seed had thickened over the course of more than a month without release. So it would take much work to bring herself to her well earned  **_release~_ **

With that burning desire a shining beacon in her mind. She thrust herself again and again into the bitch below her, roaring her dominance again into the bitches mind all the while!

Her mane of tendrils had latched onto her new mate, injecting her soft, weak flesh with fluids and chemicals that would break the bitches defiance and insure her continued consciousness and survival throughout this long breeding! All while improving her for future couplings and draining the bitch of her precious life blood, rich and savory in its flavor. 

Just one more tribute taken from a misbehaving bitch, and given to her superior.

The Beast thrust herself forward again with brutal bruising force, reveling in the sensation of the smaller,  _ weaker  _ female’s soft ass flesh compressing and squeezing beneath her own bucking hips, doing their absolute best to hilt her rods inside of the two  **_tight, warm, rippling,_ ** holes that she had claimed as her property.

The Beast would give her bitch one thing, her holes were excellent cock-sleeves... and they would be even better cumdumps.

It would not be long now.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

_ February 25th 2011, 1:50 AM. _

_ Vault Zero: Atomica’s Personal Quarters. _

_ Tattletale/Lisa Wilbourn. _

How long had it been? Long enough that I had spent at least two hours, thinking up various new words and phrases to describe my abominable inamorato,  _ and  _ her brutal breeding apparatus.

In between the endless waves of… well at this point not  _ entirely  _ unwanted orgasms along with the constant, brutish, impacts of Atomica’s pelvis and hips against my  _ thoroughly  _ tenderized rump.

My body was rocked in its ad-hoc harness by another brutal thrust, and I let out another pathetic, ragged squeal into the tentacle mouth that had forced its tongue down my throat.

**_Mistress_ ** … Atomica had long ago put her other arm back on the ground, and now I was supported only by the lattice of tendrils that slithered and squirmed and wrapped around my tired, battered body.

It was probably so she could put even more power behind her thrusts, not that she had  _ needed  _ any more power. I’m not entirely sure how she hadn’t already reduced my body to splattered bits of torn up flesh and splintered fragments of bone with the amount of force she was already using.

It’s probably something in all the stuff she’s pumping into me...

**_[SUBMIT!!!!]_ **

Another mind scouring blast of pure dominance and bestial breeding intent tore its way across my mental “landscape”

I stopped being able to muster up any sort of mental rebuke or resistance ages ago. So I just do the mental equivalent of spreading my legs and taking it.

Atomica’s been fucking my brain just as hard as she’s fucking my ass and cunt.

Yeah I would submit, Atomica wanted me as her own personal piece of ass? She could have me, I was her own personal bitch slave, Right now, if she told me to, i would get downon my hand and knees and bark like a little bitch and beg her to just  **_blow me the fuck out_ ** with her titanic dicks.

Just please,  _ please…  _ **_not so rough!_ **

Of course, Atomica, or whatever was in the driver’s seat of the thing currently molding my ass and cunt into its own personal dick holsters, wasn’t paying any attention to my pleas at the moment

No, she had much higher priorities at the moment! Like relentless beating her balls against my bruised booty and devilishly drill dicking my delightful derriere.

Well, Atomica certainly thought my derriere was delightful at least! Judging by her passionate yet futile attempts to Impregnate it with dozens of her mutant babies.

Another brutal thrust, and my body is sent swinging in my tentacle harness yet again, I can feel the teeth in me shift around a bit at that…

Atomica, according to my power, was pumping me full of stimulants and stuff that would keep me from passing out during any of this… But she was also pumping in all sorts of stuff that boosted my ability to heal from this. So I guess it evened out in the end.

She was also sucking out my blood… but it wasn’t that much, no more than a would have been taken by a normal blood drive, and that was over the course of this entire marathon fuck-fest…

She could have taken a lot more, she could have turned me into a dried out husk in less than a minute if she really wanted too… but that wasn’t the goal.

The blood taking was some sort of messed up form of “Discipline” and “Tribute” from me in whatever fucked up feral state of mind I had accidentally triggered in Atomica’s mutant brains…

My thoughts were interrupted by Atomica pulling back, and I moaned, long but not loud, as the spiralling masses of nubs and flexible spines on her dicks frantically rippled and rubbed and swirled up and against the insides of my ass and cunny.

My body weakly spasmed as it tried its best to react to what was likely my… what two hundredth consecutive orgasm?

If there was any upside to this, It was that the frequent orgasms kept me too blissed out and tired to feel the inevitable soreness and pain all that deeply.

Wait… were the thrusts starting to getting faster or was it just me?

**_[BREED!!!]_ **

Then, the world went topsy-turvy, my overly lustful paramour began to pound frantically, thick muscular hips picking up the pace to slap against my beaten buttocks with a machine gun like staccato.

My big,  _ strong _ , breeder beast began to growl and grunt with each and every thrust of her powerful hips, jets of glowing green acidic steam venting from her nostrils like an angry bull… 

My own personal big, powerful, and  _ brutal _ breeding bull!

I could feel her massive, full balls pendulously swinging back and forth beneath us, churning wildly with overflowing, backed up bestial breeding butter. 

The various glowing lights across Atomica’s body began to pulse wildly and brighten, overpowering the red and pink lighting of her room to cast everything in an eerie green. 

I feel an electric staticky sensation race across my skin as my eyes take in the sight of small arcs of green electricity crackling off of my lover’s angry red flesh. Her body heats up even further as it glows, and I suddenly feel very grateful to Odelina for making me take the rad-protection pill.

Then all I can feel is the overflowing heat and stinging arcs of electricity that my monstrous admirers mighty mating tools begin to emit.

Somehow,  _ impossibly  _ Atomica’s thrusts get even  _ harder,  _ violently compressing my ass cheeks with each booty quaking impact…

Please Atomica… You’ve already bitten it with your hair, and bruised it red and purple with your marathon thrusting. My poor pounded posterior can’t take much more of this!

Then there's one last thrust, and this time Atomica doesn’t pull back, instead she strains to push even further forward into the depths of my womb and rump. The tentacles still latched onto my body begin to wriggle wildly, their teeth gnawing and their tongues swirling over my young tender flesh. My body futilely tries to arch its back, tries to spasm and convulse as yet  _ another  _ orgasm races up and down my spine…

But there’s no more energy left in this Lisa… I’m all out of juice, and so,  _ so tired. _

But… It’s not a bad sort of tired really? I… I guess this has actually been pretty fun, hard, exhausting, and painful. But it had all come with so… so much…  _ muchness,  _ that I guess it all balanced out in favor of being a pleasant evening?

There were certainly worse ways to spend a night!

I’ve lost count of how many times Atomica has interrupted my internal monologue, but add another one to the count! My eyes go wide and incredulous, as Atomica  _ actually, incredibly,  _ **_impossibly_ ** _ manages to push even more of her colossal cunt killing dicks into me _ .

I squeal as I feel the last few inches of her dicks force themselves inside of my poor abused holes, then I squeal again as the Starfish like base of her dicks suddenly closes its limbs around my butt and legs, sucking on the outside of my pussy and, and…  _ oh… that actually feels pretty nice~ _

I just bask in that feeling of soft fleshy buds gently rippling and rolling and oozing out some cooling, soothing substance all over the outside of my poor abused pussy and battered bubbly butt.

Then I start squealing over again when Atomica’s cocks  _ start to fucking swell! _

I guess I was wrong! I had one more in the tank! My body thrashes bonelessly as I squeal and moan from the sensations of my big brutish beau’s knots flaring up and locking her massive malenesses inside of my body. An entirely  _ new  _ type of fleshy nub pushed out from their swelling bulbs to scrub and scrape and wriggle against my internal wall!

Fuck!!!! _ this hurts!!!! _

_ But if feels so fucking good!!!!~~~~~ _

**_[BREED!!!]_ **

With one final, screaming psychic assault upon my sense of self, I feel the nubs and spines all along Atomica’s overwhelmingly powerful penile appendages stiffen and swell up against the walls of my birth canal and intestines, the rapidly increasing blood flow causing them to bloat and harden to entirely new heights, as they somehow get even hotter. 

I take a moment to appreciate the pleasant sting of my partners electrically charged dicks as my big buff she-studmuffin finally, finally,  _ finally  _ blows her load!

And what a load it is!

Hot, almost scalding, jets of thick, sludge like seed spew out with bruising force into my previously untouched teenage womb, along with forcing themselves  _ all the way _ up my ass!

As an afterthought, I cum like a weak little bitch when Atomica opens the floodgates and makes my insides into her personal semen storage tank.

God this is pathetic of me, but it just feels so fucking good!

My stomach bloats with the first flood of cum pouring into my womb and intestines, and it swells with the second, equally sizable, spurt of liquid lust.

After that, it’s all just varying degrees of looking heavily pregnant.

Strangely despite this multi-hour unwilling bitch breeding marathon reaching it's incredibly thick and sticky finale, my tentacle make out partner decides that now would be a good time to let go of my neck and bail on me…

Bye mister (or would it be Miss, sense it’s attached to a girl and all?) hair tentacle! You know who to call the next time you need a tight wet throat to ceaselessly violate for hours on end!

With nothing supporting my neck, and my body completely stripped of any muscular strength, my head instantly droops down after my personal throat swabber takes it’s leave.

Conveniently this gives me an ideal angle to watch Atomica fill up my guts with an ocean of thick and gelatinous mutant goo…

Oh hey… my stomach’s glowing green from the inside out!

I should probably be extremely worried about that… but I can’t muster up the energy or focus to do anything other than just ride this supersonic pleasure train of all out, no holds barred, brutal, bullish, double dicking to its ultimate end point.

Then I feel something coming up my throat…

My unspoken and unthought question is answered when I cough up a thick trail of glowing green Abomination baby batter, that starts to slowly ooze down my chin after filling my nose mouth with the taste of salt and submission and more masculine musk than every high school football locker room and college frat house on the planet…  _ combined. _

I know I  _ shouldn’t  _ like the taste and smell… but I do for some reason. 

Truly I have sunk deep into the oceans of depravity and degradation!

It doesn’t stop there though! Atomica has been  _ really  _ backed up after all! So I now have to deal with an occasional spurt of salty, musky gelatinous mutant spunk flowing out over my tongue, slopping it’s way down my chin to cover my chest, and eventually oozing its way down to mix with all my own sexual fluids, sweat and Atomica’s various secretions to form a thick, glowing gelatinized matrix of mutated sperm cells that is slowly coating my lower body…

Aren’t there sphincters in the intestine and stomach that should prevent this sort of thing? I mean, I guess that’s a stupid question, Atomica’s dicks have bulldozed their way through every other sphincter of mine that got in their way with all the force of the bomb she based her cape theme off of… Why wouldn’t her cum be the exact same way?

XXXX

_ February 25th 2011, 3:00 AM. _

_ Vault Zero: Atomica’s Personal Quarters. _

_ Tattletale/Lisa Wilbourn. _

I’m not quite prepared for when Atomica’s knot’s finally deflate, her tentacles having long since let go of me… I pretty much immediately slide off her dicks and fall down onto the bed below. Of course As one last parting shot from the universe, Atomica’s orgasm isn’t actually over, even as her monstrous self lets out one last deafening shriek of triumph over giving her bitch a  _ proper breeding.  _ Atomica's slowly softening monster cocks are still swinging about below her body, and still oozing copious amounts of cum!

Oozing it all over my face, my chest, my breasts, my hair, my legs… All over me really.

As powerful rut scent and saltiness fill my mouth and nose, and thick slowly cooling monster cum glues my eyes shut…. I can’t help but notice that even when I’m absolutely fucking  _ plastered  _ inside and out with gelatinous abomination baby batter…

Atomica’s bed is still  _ stupidly fucking comfortable. _

But I’m not going to look that gift horse in the mouth! Here I come to dreamland! After so long and going through so much, I’m finally going home!

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Lisa Wilbourn, Her mind thoroughly addled on a combination of natural sex hormones, chemical secretions and passive psychic emissions from Atomica, and a profound level exhaustion, is completely unable to notice the shock and horror in Atomica’s eyes as her most bestial self, finally satisfied with a job well done, loses its grip over mind as her higher thinking facets reassert themselves.

Tattletale’s sleeping mind does, however, vaguely notice the projected feelings of comfort and regret and remorse that enter into her mind and make sure her dreams are comfortable and pleasant.

The teenage super villain's subconscious also notes the all encompassing warmth that surrounds her sleeping body as Atomica gathers up Lisa’s, still cum covered, form and gently snuggles the much smaller girl into her chest.

Despite Tattletale’s attempt to abandon her end of their agreement, Atomica ultimately decides that the girl has suffered far more than she ever actually deserved and pledges to uphold her end of the bargain. Tomorrow she and the other Undersiders will be moved to Rooms meant to host guests instead of prison cells, and their needs and desires will be met to the best of her ability.

Little did Atomica know that her most monstrous self had fucked a hole straight through any of Tattletales self-delusions or excuses, and forced the teenage villainess to admit, if only to herself, that she really,  _ really  _ liked being roughly fucked by Atomica’s giant mutant dicks, but not  _ quite  _ as rough a fucking as she got tonight… Along with enjoying being eaten out by The Mad Mutant SCIENTIST’S mutated tongue.

While the various mind altering effects and addictions Atomica’s secretions afflicted Tattletale would be thoroughly purged by Atomica’s own anti-addiction medication… Addictol only removes the addiction and related symptoms, It does not remove the patient's enjoyment or lack thereof of the thing the patient was addicted too.

But... all of that will all have to wait till the morning.

Or more like the afternoon, because come Six AM in three hours, Atomica will violently destroy her alarm clock and declare February 25th to be a "Opt-in to work day!"

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

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	9. Interludes, and the Morning after.

_February 25th 2011 6:00 AM_

_Vault Zero: Atomica’s Personal Quarters_

_Atomica/Taylor Hebert._

*BEEP!* *BEEP!* BEEP!*

Was the sound of my alarm clock compelling me to awaken from my slumber.

*CRUNCH!!!*

Was the sound of my fist smashing my alarm into so many pieces of shattered metal and electronics. The uppity machine’s punishment for having the _gall_ to compel me to do anything!

I am the one who compels!

And so does Alarm Clock #492 die for it’s cause… Oh well, Alarm clock #493 will be in its place by evening, ready to perform its function in a few short hours and go to it’s assuredly violent demise soon after!

This is why I didn’t bother giving the Alarm clocks any sort of AI. It would be far too cruel to make a living being with thoughts and feelings of it’s own… Only to _unmake_ it a mere few hours after it’s birth.

I may be fine with afflicting various existential nightmares upon people, but there are _lines_!

Thin, blurry lines… with lots of gaps in them, but still, they exist!

Anyways! I am now awake… hopefully not for all that long. But I _did_ have a few things to do, and a few announcements to make, before I could go back to properly snuggling my paramour into my bosom!

It may be vain of me, but I do _so_ enjoy having a bountiful bosom to drag a lover into and snuggle them with!

My previous slender figure certainly had its charms! Many, _many_ fans on the internet had made the appeal of my previous shape all too clear for me to doubt that, but it did lack a certain... softness to burrow into after a long period of pleasant exertion!

Maybe that’s why she left… Was I not comfortable enough? Did I not make her feel safe and happy after we were done?

No! Not today brains! Today Is a happy day! So I COMMAND you to cut it out with the depressing memories!

With my brains successfully put back in their place, and my good mood repaired, I can finally open my eyes!

Well most of my eyes, some of them stay open even when I sleep to alert me to threats in the night!

Anyways, I open my eyes and…

Everything is so clear!

I mean, not my sight, my sight had been perpetually perfect after my mutation! I mean my mind.

The red and pink haze that had clouded my thoughts and compelled my actions for the past week had lifted!

Oh sure, some of the lust, the desire to seek carnal pleasures and reproduction, was still there, With the way my body was now, I don’t think it was possible for me to ever _not_ be “In the mood” so to speak.

But now it was a _want_ instead of an all consuming _need_ that screamed and howled in the back of my brains for me to fulfill it.

I could push it away and _actually prioritize properly_ again!

And all it took was the coercion of a girl around my own age into being my personal bedwarmer…

Worth it!

Besides, it’s not like I was just going to lock her up in my basement or something! She’ll benefit from this relationship just as much as I do!

Probably! That sort of thing is more on the subjective side after all!

The point is that we will both benefit from this relationship, a proper symbiosis!

Now that I’m awake and have established that my mind is now clear of all pervading carnal desires, it’s time to get started with my day! The sooner I get this done the sooner I can get back to snuggling!

“Lights, Brightness setting three, morning glory colors, if you please!” I command firmly to the surrounding room.

And, of course, the top of the line voice activated sensors in my room heed my command and promptly execute my will! As is only proper of the creations of the Great Atomica!

Soon enough, the room, once darkened for sleep, is filled with a soft orange and gold glow, comparable to a sunrise! These special lightwaves have been proven, with SCIENCE!!!, to reinvigorate a freshly awakened mind and help shake off that early morning grogginess, while also proving to be incapable of waking a mind still in need of rest! The perfect illumination for an early workday morning after a long night of passion!

Speaking of passion…

I look down at the still sleeping form of Lisa… And let out a soft rumbling purr.

She’s so precious, with her adorable little foxy face all snuggled up between my breasts like that, the rest of her body pressed into my abdomen, tightly secured by the tendrils that normally wove together to form my abdominal plating!

Of course, her body is still covered in my release, thick and sticky, and mixing with the sweat that my body heat has caused her to give off, the scent is overpowering, and I have no doubt that it would utterly saturate even a normal, human, sense of smell! But that’s fine, it serves to mark Lisa out as mine after all!

I let out a little coo as my purring causes _my_ Lisa to burrow even deeper into one of my breasts with a little vulpine smile on her face.

While I could stay here for… hours really! I did need to get a few things done before I could do that without feeling lazy!

But how to extricate my Tattletale from between my titanic tits without waking her?

I had put her through… honestly _too rough_ of a time last night, and I would feel awful if I woke her up so early! She was still human and needed lots of sleep after all!

Ahh! I know!

“Bed. Sector 3, Warmth setting seven and kinetic setting 4, rumble pattern, please!” I say as firmly, yet quietly as I can.

Then I carefully, _carefully_ use the armored tendril holding my Lisa in place to gently lower her into the bed that is now simulating my exact body heat, along with the movement of my breathing and heartbeat.

I can’t help but giggle a bit as Tattletale’s sleeping face grimaces at no longer being in my marshmallowy embrace, before she unconsciously grabs one of the large plush pillows and uses it as a substitute.

She’s getting the semi-dried semen all over it, but that’s what a quick run through the matter conversion machines are for!

Why bother with washing sheets or pillows or clothes when you could just break them down on the atomic level and then reassemble them without the filth! Much easier and faster that way!

With my Lisa now extricated from between my mammaries and peacefully sleeping, it’s time to begin the day!

Pulling myself up from my sleeping position on my side. I stretch out, first raising my arms above my head and letting out a jaw cracking yawn before expanding my wings and giving them a few soft flaps.

Then I descend onto all fours and _stretch_ the various muscles in my back and legs, extending my tentacles upwards and behind me at a forty five degree angle to the rest of my body.

Feeling my muscles stretch out and loosen up I proceed to stand up on two legs (it’s nice that I can do that in this repaired part of the vault at least!) and make my way out of the bedroom.

First things first…

“Tea, Earl Grey, ten gallon cup, one pound of sugar, three pounds of plutonium-239, five pounds of Ultracite powder.” I quickly ordered my Hot-Beveragomatic as I made my way through the little kitchenette of my personal apartment. All in all, it should take about 30 minutes for it to finish… So it should be done at the same time as I’m done with my shower!

I keep on walking, not even stopping for a moment as my tail lashes out to grab and scarf down a two foot long chocolate éclair, as a nice, light snack before breakfast.

Entering my bathroom, I take a moment to look at myself in the mirror sheen of the black hexagonal tile scheme that I so adore. Even broken up by the glowing green grout, I could easily evaluate my own appearance in the slick reflective surface… And as usual I look fantastic! But a quick clean up would definitely make me look better!

I take a moment to look at my hot tub, Yes I have a hot tub! Every swanky bachelorette pad needed a hot tub after all! Well really it was more of collection of varyingly sized pools that could be heated and had jets... But proportional _to me_ it was a hot tub.

And what a hot tub it was! Each interconnected pool was filled with mineral water and equipped with jets of all sorts! Each one capable of a wide range of pressures and patterns! Through the amazing powers of SCIENCE!!! they were also able to automatically dispense various relaxation aids such as scented oils or bubbles, and could be lit with the same subliminal mood lights as my bed room!

Hmmm...

It occurs to me that Tattletale does seem like one to love her creature comforts, a sentiment I can agree with… I’ll need to arrange a spa day! I bet she would like that!

Moving on past the various interconnected pools of steaming mineral water, I finally enter my shower!

Like everything else I’ve designed for my personal Quarter’s… It is a monument to the incredible capability of SCIENCE!!! To make life easier, more convenient, and more comfortable than anyone ever thought possible!

With a quick order of “The usual please!” my shower’s advanced automated systems come to life!

Water pour out from all sides as waterproof robotic arms emerge to carefully soap and scrub and brush and clean every part of my body!

My skin is soaped and scrubbed and then oiled and creamed Until it emits a healthy fiery red glow! My hair tendrils are carefully brushed down and cleansed, and the muscles inside carefully kneaded.

My armor plates, horns, teeth, crystalline growths, and back mounted spines are all carefully washed and buffed and polished to a perfect sheen using various appropriate cleaning tools and chemicals.

Powerfully vibrating pads are applied to my back, thigh and glute muscles to forcefully loosen knots and maximize muscular function.

Finally, the volume of water and the rate of its pouring increases to wash away any remaining soap or other cleaning materials, before the flow of water promptly stops and is replaced by powerful gusts of warm air!

Now clean and dry and looking my best, I reweave my abdominal tendrils back into their proper armored configuration and begin making my way out of my bathroom.

Making my way back through the kitchenette I grab my, now finished, ten gallon cup of tea, taking a moment luxuriate in the smell of one of my favorite morning beverages!

Also it had a subtle green glow from all the powdered ultracite, so that was neat!

I take a quick moment to check on Lisa, she’s still blissfully sleeping and covered in partially dried cum… perfect!

Once that’s done I move on to my own little command station… not the proper command center of course, but it’s meant to allow me to make announcements to the vault, communicate with my various robotic children, and keep abreast of things, all without leaving the comfort of my room!

Of course, I needed to leave the room to do SCIENCE!!! Or fight crime, so there were still plenty of things to draw me out.

“Alright let’s get started! Intercom! Connect me!”

The unmistakable crackle of static tells me that I am in fact live and being broadcast across the vault!

Clearing my throat I begin my incredibly professional address to all of my robotic children and subordinates!

“GOOD MORNING LOYAL ROBOTS OF VAULT ZERO! THIS IS THE GREAT AND POWERFUL CHAMPION OF JUSTICE AND SCIENCE!!!, ATOMICA, SPEAKING!!! AS A SPECIAL REWARD TO US ALL FOR THE PAST WEEK OF HARD WORK, TODAY SHALL BE WHAT I CALL AN “OPT-IN TO WORK DAY!” WHERE YOU CAN, YES, THAT’S RIGHT, _OPT IN TO WORK_!!! THERE WILL BE NO PENALTIES FOR CHOOSING NOT TO WORK TODAY! FOR THOSE OF YOU WHO DO DECIDE TO WORK ANYWAY, YOU WILL RECEIVE AN EXTRA TWENTY VENDOMATIC CREDIT CHIPS FOR EACH HOUR OF WORK YOU PERFORM, FOR UP TO FOUR HOURS! IF YOU HAVE FURTHER QUESTIONS, DO NOT BOTHER, I AM NOT OPTING IN TO WORK TODAY! AND THEREFORE I DO NOT HAVE TO ANSWER ANYTHING! THAT IS ALL!”

With my address now delivered to the vault as a whole, I press the button that ends the recording.

Now just one thing left to do before I can go back to bed and indulge in snuggles!

“AIVA are you there?” I ask the empty room.

“I always am!” my precocious digital daughter chirps out cheerfully.

“Good! Good! So I’ve been thinking, The world up top all thinks I’m dead right?” I ask AIVA casually.

“Yes, that is true. You can’t really blame them, all of the robots that had been dispatched decided to go out fighting against Leviathan once the vault fell, and you ceased to communicate or to make any appearances for a month after that. Assuming you were dead was a logical reaction.” AIVA says professionally.

So cute!

But, anyway…

“No No, I’m not blaming them or anything stupid like that. No! I feel we should give them some indication of my return... But, at the same time, we aren’t ready to resume full functionality yet, let alone start implementing the new crime eliminating methodology! Also I still need to figure out how I will present myself to the public! So I was pondering, and I came up with a fun idea! Instead of us just flat out saying we’re alive and explaining why we’re indisposed just yet… why don’t we have a little fun! Just until we’re ready to emerge in full!”

I say, a glimmer of mischief in my voice!

What? I’m allowed a sense of humor! SCIENCE!!! knows enough people tried to prank me back in Winslow, and turnabout is fair play!

“Oh?~ What ever could you have planned, mother dearest?” AIVA asks conspiratorially…

It feels nice to hear her call me “mother” not just in some shallow superficial way either! It feels good deep in my irradiated bones!

I should probably answer her question shouldn’t I?

“Okay… So I’m going to need you to access the internet for me…”

And so I explain my plan to AIVA!

She seems happy with it, and promptly starts fulfilling her role in my little scheme.

As for me? I head back to the bedroom, and delicately grab my still sleeping Lisa, before properly my wings and laying on my back… Then I gently place Lisa onto my chest and abdomen, where she proceeds to promptly snuggle her head deep into my cleavage, and let out a happy little murmur as she does so.

Her unconscious murmurs are soon drowned out by the sound of my rumbling purring.

A nice cup of radiation enriched tea, A comfy bed, and a cute girl thoroughly marked with my scent snuggling into my tits.

Honestly, when it comes to having a lazy day, it would be hard to get any better than that!

This is _bliss~_

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■

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■

**♦ Topic: New Cape?**

**In: Boards ► News ► Events ► America**

**Ekul** (Original Poster) (At Ground Zero: Brockton Bay) (Founder of the Atomica Fan Club)

Posted On Aug 13th 2009:

So... Bad news... A few friends of mine got mugged, they were in the docks area, so you can probably guess by which group, So that should help you figure out who did it.

Good news! They got saved by a cape! A new one!

Weird news... Well just fucking look for yourself....

LINK

**(Showing page 1 of 2)**

> **►WAZER**
> 
> Replied On Aug 13th 2009:
> 
> Well... She's certainly rocking a sort "Atom-Punk/Mad Scientist" look... Wonder where she got the glowing lipstick?
> 
> Neat swarm of robotic drones too!
> 
> I like the fact that she shot the gangbanger with her lazer pistol to make him shut up. Good riddance!
> 
> **►Slorgtheabominable**
> 
> Replied On Aug 13th 2009:
> 
> She looks a bit young to be swinging some tinker tech laser rifle around... New Ward incoming?
> 
> Well, whatever, good to have a new heroically inclined cape around...
> 
> **►lolmac** (Banned)
> 
> Replied On Aug 13th 2009:
> 
> I like that she wears a skintight suit underneath the coat!
> 
> Mod: This is verging on creepy...

**End of Page. 1**

> ■

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_February 25th 2011 8:30 AM_

_Abandoned Endbringer Shelter._

_Coil._

Things… had not gone as planned.

While I had managed to reveal the civilian identities of the so-called “Empire” without revealing myself…

The Protectorate had failed to follow through on this information in a satisfactory way, and the E88 had ended up regrouping and _reconsolidating,_ of all things!

They had even dragged Purity fully back into their influence, which had brought back Night, and Fog.

They were now an open presence, and claiming control of a large chunk of downtown Brockton Bay.

They had basically taken over that part of the city, and had their own little army of skinhead thugs to help them hold it.

Protectorate patrols in the area had been met with force.

It appears that I have made an unfortunate miscalculation when it came to the PRT’s ability to hold ground in the post Leviathan environment.

With the Empire 88 now in open defiance against the Law, Lung and the ABB had of course followed suit, and as a result the Northwestern Half of the city had fallen to gang rule as well.

The Archer’s bridge merchant’s, once a minor gang located near the train yards, had ballooned in size with an influx of poor and homeless created by the Leviathan, and had caused that section of the city to descend into a drug fueled anarchy.

Now the only places that even paid lip service to the US government was a small strip of the city near the coast, stretching from the docks down into the farthest eastern portion of downtown.

These various gang ruled areas had… decayed, to different degrees, access to electrical power and running water ranged from “patchy” in the e88 and Abb controlled territories, to “nearly Non-existent” in the merchant held train yards, which only caused the increasingly drug addled degenerates to concentrate around the few buildings that still had these features.

Phone networks had been one of the few things anyone had bothered to repair, and through them a certain amount of long distance communication and internet access remained available to the citizen’s of Brockton.

In addition to the ascendant E88 and ABB, and the Swelling ranks of the merchants, various independent groups continued as they always had.

Uber and Leet had continued their inane little shows with a new zeal now that Atomica had died and would no longer be arriving to stop anything they did in the northern half of The Bay.

Faultline and her crew continued with their stance of neutrality within the city proper, and had enough reasonably potent capes to enforce control of their building and a small area around it.

The Dallon half of New Wave had suffered somewhat, their original place of residence having fallen victim to leviathan, and as far as I can tell they have taken up living with the other half of the still born movement for the time being.

Finally, a new group had shown up occupying a small stretch of residential area in between the Domain of the Protectorate/PRT and the ABB. Apparently led by a new parahuman… with some sort of trump ability to boost the physical capabilities of others to a small degree?

I still needed more data on that front.

This particular group, mostly consisting of former dockworkers, had also been sighted employing tinkertech.

Familiar tinkertech.

Atomica Brand Tinker Tech.

This had been proven when the sole parahuman amongst the group had evaporated the head of an ABB ganger with what appeared to be a “Laser Shotgun.”

Where they had gotten it, or how, was completely unknown, but they apparently had a significant supply of it, and were not afraid to use it to try and enforce something resembling order in their small stretch of territory.

The leading theory was that Atomica had secret stashes of tech around the northern half of Brockton, which would explain her rapid response times to crime in the area, and that this group had found one of these stashes at some point after her death.

No matter how they had gotten access to the technology, they were something worth keeping an eye on in my opinion.

As for the Undersiders?

_My_ Undersiders? I had sent them on a job… To infiltrate the supposedly abandoned lair of Atomica herself, and steal whatever they could acquire, albeit with an emphasis on acquiring a certain piece of data.

It has now been more than a week since they were to begin… and they have not returned, nor have they reported in.

The last info I had received on their activities is that they had narrowly avoided death by Purity to descend into the sinkhole.

Then? Nothing.

Of course, I had not been content to let it end there.

So via usage of my power I sent my men down there to try and ascertain what may have happened, armed with tinker tech weaponry of their own, and the override code my Tattletale had acquired for her job.

They died to the last, cut down by a never ending tide of Atomica’s robotic drones, the override code failed to do anything, with the robots actively citing that it had been changed in the wake of a “previous unauthorized override.”

I have made… many more attempts to infiltrate Atomica’s lair in the days following, to attempt to figure out what happened to The Undersiders, and more importantly my Tattletale.

None of these had ended better than the first attempt, the mercenaries sent in dying again to defensive robots or the roving “Floaters” that had come to dwell within the subterranean ecosystem.

More recent attempts would see Atomica’s robots and the Floaters _working together!_ To kill my men.

Which had certain implications as to the origins of the blasted creatures. Implications that I’m sure the PRT and Protectorate would make great use of… which is why I will not be telling them.

Then there were the attempts that saw no resistance to the robots, or floaters… these found no evidence that The undersiders had died somewhere in the cave system… but were then met with the problem that they could not open the door to Atomica’s lair.

Both increasingly large amounts of high explosives and toybox brand laser weaponry failed to force the door open.

Yesterday I made a timeline where I hired Faultline to destroy the door with her power.

This attempt was successful...

Until everyone involved died within three seconds of the door falling apart… I have yet to ascertain the exact reason for that.

I would be significantly more troubled by all the casualties my men had taken… But thankfully none of these events ever _actually_ happened.

But the problem remained, The Undersiders had disappeared, and I have been unable to figure out what exactly has happened to them… or more importantly what has happened to my _pet._

The best I’ve come up with is that the Undersiders succeeded in using the override code to bypass the robots and enter Atomica’s Lair. Only for some sort of contingency created specifically for that scenario to activate and lock them inside… Trapping them inside the lair of a dead tinker and at the mercy of whatever defenses may exist inside.

This unfortunately means that, in all likelihood, The Undersiders are all dead.

That is… frustrating to put it mildly.

I had shot the nearest person in the head several times after I had come to that conclusion.

But sometimes I just can’t account for _everything,_ as hard as I might try. It had happened, and I would just have to deal with it.

A replacement group would have to be found.

But where to look?

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■

**♦ Topic: Atomica Captures Cricket! Sends Stormtiger Running!**

**In: Boards ► News ► Events ► America**

**Shagrat** (Original Poster) (The Other Guy In the Know)

Posted On Nov 26th 2009:

Let us give thanks for beaten Nazi's!

Video here.

While it's always good to see Nazis get seen off, Stormtiger... No man should ever have to indoor three punches and a laser beam to that area in particular.

> **(Showing page 1 of 20)**

> **►Sweshyswev** (At Ground Zero: Brockton Bay) (Founder of the Atomica Fan club)
> 
> Replied On Nov 26th 2009:
> 
> For Real?
> 
> My gal's moving up in the world! Her First big cape capture!
> 
> Good on you Atomica!
> 
> **►Joe Crim**
> 
> Replied On Nov 26th 2009:
> 
> Fucking psychotic bitch... did you see what she did to Stormtiger?
> 
> Oh well, she'll get hers.
> 
> **►Atomica!** (Verified Cape) (SCIENCE!!!)
> 
> Replied On Nov 26th 2009:
> 
> Cease your unsightly whining at once Neo-Nazi, Both Cricket and Stormtiger earned exactly what they were due. this is a SCIENTIFICALLY!!! proven fact!
> 
> Also fair warning to all the "women" with the requisite lack of sense to end up with the E88, Stormtiger was a very subpar specimen, I got a good sense of his... "Masculinity" when I was punching him.
> 
> The displacer glove I was using is unlikely to have improved this state of affairs... same with the laser pistol.
> 
> Oh yes! Almost Forgot!
> 
> Happy Thanksgiving Everyone! I tried to make a Super Turkey for everyone, but it didn't turn out so well and I had to incinerate it before it began attempting to mind control the populace.
> 
> **►Shagrat** (Original Poster) (The Other Guy In the Know)
> 
> Replied On Nov 26th 2009:
> 
> Talk about adding insult to injury...
> 
> Also your joking about the mind controlling super-turkey thing right?
> 
> **►Shagrat** (Original Poster) (The Other Guy In the Know)
> 
> Replied On Nov 26th 2009:
> 
> Atomica? You WERE joking right?!?!
> 
> **►Atomica!** (Verified Cape) (SCIENCE!!!)
> 
> Replied On Nov 26th 2009:
> 
> ...
> 
> ...
> 
> ...
> 
> Yes.

**End of Page. 1, 2, 3 ... 18, 19, 20**

> ■

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_February 25th 2011 11:30 AM_

_The Streets of Brockton Bay._

_Glory Girl/Victoria Dallon._

Things haven’t been great… Lately.

At least not for me.

I mean… my boyfriend died, a bunch of cape pals of mine had died, my house got destroyed in the flooding, Amy’s been spending a lot more time in the hospital ever since Leviathan, and Brockton had gone straight to hell. The Nazi’s and the Yakuza Wannabees and the every other thug and degenerate around had staked their claims and were dead set on holding them.

And then, of course there were _these fucking things!_

The floater exploded into a ball of fire as I punched it with a final warbling howl, the heat and force deflecting off my shield and not doing a single thing to me.

That… should be all of them here. I really hope so anyway, for the sake of anyone else who may come through here.

I shudder as I attempt to shake off the green goo on my hands.

Floater’s… Nasty things

The fugly little things had started showing up a few weeks ago, and had been driving people out of all sorts of places, if someone got too close to them they would try to attack, and if they got you, they would eat you… alive.

New Wave, my family had been called in by the Protectorate and asked to help with culling the horrible little monsters when we could.

Well… It was nice to have something to vent on without worrying about accidentally breaking it.

I think we were even making headway! I’ve been seeing less and less Floater’s over the last few days.

So at least that was one menace we were managing to beat back… Now if only we could do the same to the E88…

…

…

…

I’m bored, and kinda sad too.

It’s just been one thing after another this past month, and I’ve been stuck squeezed in with my aunt and uncle and cousins for most of that time, So I haven’t been able to deal with much of it at all.

Dean was... gone, Dad had sunk even deeper into depression, Mom was… mom.

Amy had just dived into her work for some reason and now she just comes home and immediately goes to sleep.

School was basically over, Arcadia had flooded and half the staff had died apparently, so that wasn’t a thing to do.

Even the other capes were just so… depressing now.

I couldn’t blame them, of course, they all had their own things to worry about after all, and I’m sure this past month hasn’t been any better for them… but still.

Aegis was gone, and Clockblocker had apparently taken over the wards for now, and he was… unusually serious and grim, not a hint of his jokes or smart mouth to be found… and poor Vista was hit hard by two of her friend’s deaths.

Shadow stalker remained a bitch, as usual, but had been even _worse_ lately for some reason.

I didn’t even have Atomica’s goofy patrols to drop in on anymore! That sucked pretty hard actually, Atomica had been nice, weird, but nice! She gave out soda and candy and let kids climb on some of her robots and ride around on them!

Not anymore though, Leviathan had made sure of that.

…

…

…

I need to stop thinking about all this depressing stuff for a bit.

Maybe I’ll go check up on Ames! Oooh! and take her out for lunch! There are still a few restaurants open in that part of town! She needs to get out of the hospital every once and awhile anyways!

Yeah, that sounds good! A lunch break with her big sister will be good for her!

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■

**♦ Topic: The Official Atomica Fan Thread, HOME OF ALL THINGS SCIENCE!!!!**

**In: Boards ► Capes ► Cape threads**

**Sweshyswev** (Original Poster) (At Ground Zero: Brockton Bay) (Founder of the Atomica Fan club)

Posted On Feb 1st 2010:

Welcome to the Official Atomica Fan Thread! Where we can all talk about Our favorite woman of SCIENCE!!!

If you don't know atomica then here are a few links to threads detailing her Exploits!

Atomica's Debut. (she actually saved some friends of mine from the ABB)

Atomica captures Cricket. (RIP Stormtiger's Dignity)

Atomica Captures Stormtiger!

Atomica repeatedly explodes Alabaster until he gives up and runs away.

She's done a lot more than that of course! and I'm sure she'll be doing plenty more in the future!

So to start up the chat... What do you all like about Our favorite SCIENTIST!!!

> **(Showing page 1 of 1)**

**►lolmac** (Banned)

Replied On Feb 1st 2010:

She has legs for days and big "Step on me Mommy" energy!

Mod edit: Dude... she's like 15. Have a few days off to rethink your life.

**►Shogwomog** (At Ground Zero: Brockton Bay) (Elementary school teacher)

Replied On Feb 1st 2010:

Atomica's pretty cool! She's good with kids too! Did you hear about her "SCIENCE!! and you!" show she did on the boardwalk? She had those kids eating out of the palm of her hand, all while actually teaching them real science! oh! I mean SCIENCE!!!

**►WAZER**

Replied On Feb 2nd 2010:

I appreciate her taste in weaponry... Also the fact that she'll beat the hell out Nazi's and reject any claims of that being a bad thing.

**►Slorgtheabominable**

Replied On Feb 2nd 2010:

I, for one, welcome our new Robot Overlords!

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_February 25th 2011 3:30 AM_

_Vault Zero: Atomica’s Personal Quarters._

_Tattletale/Lisa Wilbourn_

Consciousness comes gradually, like a creeping fog.

First I feel the warmth and the softness all around me, feel the sensation of my head having sunk into something incredibly plush and _comfortable._

Then comes the pain, screaming in from every muscle in my body at once.

I feel my mouth draw into a grimace, then I grit my teeth…

But before I can scream the rumbling comes, soft but insistent, from all around me. The gentle, but firm vibrations loosens and soothes my tender flesh, and the pain fades away to a dull throb.

Then comes sensation.

I’m… covered in something, warm and thick and sticky, almost like drying mud, it clings to all of my body, and mixes with my sweat.

The scent of it fills my nose… it’s overpowering, salt and musk and pungency that slams itself into my brain and drowns out anything else.

I try to open my eyes, but I can’t, whatever is covering my body has glued them shut.

I try to open my mouth and speak, but the only noise that comes out is a hoarse moan.

I hear a voice, muffled by the thick slimy stuff that’s running into my ears, and even though I can’t make out what it’s saying, I can tell that it is a good voice, a kind voice, a loving voice.

I feel myself being moved about and jostled around, then something large and round and _oh so soft_ presses up against my body and I grab hold of it with what little strength I can bring to bear with my aching body, burrowing myself into the soft warmth.

I can hear the voice let out a laugh and the rumbling comes back, Combined with the overwhelmingly powerful scent and taste constricting my mind… It's just too much, I abandon trying to think for a while and let myself sink into the powerful scent of safety and the warm, soft, vibrating _thing_ that makes me feel so good.

More muffled speaking, longer this time, firmer and stricter in its tone… I don’t even bother to try and decipher it, But it makes an entirely different sort of warmth run through my body all the same. Feelings of warmth and comfort and safety and submission wrap around my brain and I let them slowly massage my tired mind back into wakefulness.

I hear running water, and suddenly the stuff that’s been covering my body begins to slop and flow and fall away, leaving my bare skin exposed to the air. The feeling of open air on my newly exposed flesh is _electrifying._ Like lightning running down my spine… but it doesn’t hurt, if anything it does the opposite! I feel alive! More alive than I can ever remember feeling! Every little movement of the air, the warm drops of liquid impacting against and running down my skin, it’s all just _so much more_ than it ever was before.

As more warm liquid washes over me, I feel something gently scrubbing on my skin in slow, circular motions. Wiping away the layer of… what was it?

Memory is coming back… but slowly…

It will come to me soon enough I guess!

Anyways, as more and more of the layer of thick slime covering my body is washed and scrubbed and massaged away, the feeling of _moreness_ grows and spreads over each newly revealed portion of my skin, crackling along my body like electricity and filling my form with raw _sensation._

The rumbling becomes more intense than ever before, and I feel my body being flipped over.

I feel a gentle pressure on my feet, slow circular rubbing, _kneading_ of aching muscles and bruised skin.

I luxuriate in it, my mouth letting out tiny, quiet moans and squeaks at the sensation, I feel strong, soft, warm flesh pressed against my own, and let the powerful muscles of the person tending to me rub away all my troubles.

Something tells me that the hands gripping me are far too large to be natural, but I can’t really bring myself to care at the moment, I’m enjoying the feelings far too much for that!

I feel the thin, sharp tips of claws tracing careful etchings on my skin, without breaking it even once, the thin lines they trace along my skin radiate warm tingles that cause the surrounding muscles to relax and give up their pains.

Then the sensations travel up my legs to kneading and trace along my thighs and butt and back.

I _melt._

_It’s too good~_ The limbs holding me rumble with intense vibrations as they pamper my flesh, turning my bones to jelly as I slump over in the grip my unseen admirer has upon me.

The touches linger and intensify on my rump, the grip upon it becoming firmer, like it was trying to appreciate the feeling of it, and lay claim to that part of me, all at once. I weakly wiggle my rear even deeper into the grip, I need to show my appreciation for all this somehow right.

Finally the muscles in my back are subjected to these tender, loving ministrations, pain and soreness and stiffness snuffed out like a candle flame as this strong, powerful, comforting presence moves through them.

The back side of my body now thoroughly cleaned and tended to, I feel my caretaker pick me up, and I let them, bonelessly submitting to their gentle insistence. Still unable to see or hear anything, all I can do is trust.

I feel myself being sat up amidst the gentle coos and indecipherable whispers of my partner, then set between two massive, muscular pillars of fiery hot flesh, my back pressed up against a firm surface of powerful muscles.

Then I feel tendrils wrap around my arms and _I remember._

_A seductress slithering her way into my brain, enthralling me with sweet words and chemical coercion._

_A beast ripping me up off of the ground and impaling me twice over, drinking my blood, violating my body,_ **_marking_ ** _it as it’s property, A brutish desire to fuck and breed and assert its dominance was it’s only goal._

_Thick tendrils writhing upon and squeezing my flesh, malformed tongues slithering down my throat and over my bruised skin, teeth sinking into it to bleed me and take tribute for my rightful master._

I stiffen in fear as I finally remember the night before, the pain, the degradation, the _violation_ that Atomica has inflicted upon me.

I shiver in dread, even as my nethers clench down, as if seeking out that same violation as before…

I still can’t see or hear, what can only be Atomica’s dried _cum_ , her _semen_ , her _jizz_ , still blocking my ears, and adhering my eyes shut. I feel gross and dirty and… Warm?

What the fuck is wrong with me?

There’s no way I _liked_ any of what happened last night!

Is there?

My thoughts are interrupted as I feel Atomica moving around me, her abdominals and core muscles flexing powerfully as she moves her upper body about, I feel her giant jugs settle into place behind my head as she leans back slightly.

Then she starts… Brushing my hair?

What?

No seriously, What?!

A breezy feeling of calm and reassurance floats across my mind, having come from foreign shores, and suddenly I am reminded that Atomica had obviously been the one who had been treating me so gently earlier.

I’m about to try and mount a mental resistance to this foreign mind invasion when suddenly Atomica finds this particular spot on my scalp and starts rubbing it and…

_Ooooh that feels niiiiiiice~_

I slump back and sink myself into Atomica’s cushiony chest as she carefully brushes and cleans my hair, her claws, capable of shredding steel like paper, slowly, gently, _carefully_ tracing patterns across my scalp that tingle with something I can’t quite describe.

Then her _purring,_ the rumbling from earlier, intensifies again and puts an end to my hopes of having a freak-out.

Time passes… I’m not quite sure when my face is finally cleaned of dried cum and I regain my ability to see, nor am I certain when I start being able to hear Atomica’s breathy whispers of “ _that’s a good girl~ relaaaaaax. Let me make you feel good~”_

But eventually I do regain those abilities and the shared shower comes to an end.

Then Atomica gets up and walks away and I’m left stunned.

No, she can’t leave! She felt so good!

I can’t be alone! I’m not safe alone! Atomica **cannot leave me.**

**I need her. I need her. I NEED HER.**

I’m on my feet and running after her before I can even think, and soon enough I’ve latched on to her tail.

Atomica turns around and looks at me with… pity?

“Oh… You’ve got it _bad_ don’t you? Well I’ll fix you up soon! But if it helps you feel better you can ride on my tail until then!” She asks me… or was she asking herself? It doesn’t matter! I get to keep touching her!

I latch onto her tail with all of my slowly recovering strength and the limb promptly lifts me entirely off the ground and carries my naked form as if I wasn’t even there.

I can’t help but notice that I have a prime position to observe the sway of her glorious rear and hips, and soon I lose myself to their entrancing movement.

Until I feel a needle prick my arm and suddenly the world snaps back into focus!

“There we go, Addictol! For all your addiction needs! That should take the edge off…” I can hear speaking again.

There was something about Addictive substances coming from Atomica last night wasn’t there?

Well whatever Atomica seemed to have stuck me with seems to have gotten rid of the addiction

The all consuming need I felt to be near Atomica, to touch her, to be touched _by her,_ fades away, and eventually ceases to be a need at all.

No… Now it’s just an odd craving! One I can easily push aside!

I definitely don’t regret my decision to slide off Atomica’s tail and walk for myself.

Not at all.

Soon after my mind starts reverting to... something resembling normal, I find my still wet body patted dry by Atomica, and then carefully wrapped in a _sinfully_ fluffy green bathrobe.

Is this how Atomica intends to keep me as her personal whore? Ruining me for any other life-style by drowning me in luxury and decadence!?

That… That actually might work...

What? Atomica’s bed was _really_ comfortable, okay!?

Along with her boobs.

Atomica once again, interrupts my internal monologue to continue speaking.

“Alright, Isn’t that Swell! All nice and clean and dry! Now I’m willing to guess that you're probably hungry and thirsty after last night's… activities, and I’m sure you have plenty of things you want to discuss. So let’s kill two birds with one electrical arc from the tesla coil and have a talk over a late brunch! How does that sound?” The mutant woman says, her voice… calm, soothing, _maternal_ even, in it’s tone. It’s a very nice voice… and it puts me off guard.

Well, I _am_ pretty hungry right now…

Ten minutes.

It only took ten minutes for Atomica to whisk away from her… _fucking massive_ bathroom, and take me to a similarly well equipped kitchenette, where she asked me what I wanted to drink and eat (some form of coffee and anything they had were my answers), and then the bigger girl promptly relayed her interpretation of that order to some sort of… _Auto-chef._

Now I find myself at a black and glowing green table, sitting in a similarly colored chair. The only thing between me and Atomica being the table itself, the mug of _fucking amazing_ coffee, and the ludicrously tall stack of pancakes topped with whipped cream and strawberries and all sorts of other things that had been placed in front of me.

And I was still naked except for this stupidly fluffy bathrobe.

“You… You really don’t cut corners when it comes to guests do you?” I ask, trying to futilely assert some sort of control over this whole thing with humor.

“Of course not!” Atomica says… loudly.

And suddenly I feel the crackling of electricity and the interplay of sub-atomic forces in my mind…

“SCIENCE!!! Can do anything! Improve lives! Ruin lives! Make lives! Reshape lives! Save lives! End lives! But one of the best things it can do is make our lives more comfortable! More convenient! I labored tirelessly to use SCIENCE!!! To improve the lives of the people of Brockton Bay! So I feel it is only fair that I too sample some of the fruits of my labor! Only the best for me and mine! And therefore only the best for my personal quarters!”

Yes that made sense! That made sense! If I had SCIENCE! Why wouldn’t I use it to make my own life better!

In fact… Why wouldn’t I use SCIENCE!!! For everything? Who cares if there are few explosions? Or if I mangle the ecosystem into something unrecognizable? Science isn’t _just_ about Why… It’s also about Why Not!

For a moment, I feel as if I am on the verge of some grand revelation, a great enlightenment… OF SCIENCE!!!

And then the mental electricity cuts out and suddenly I’m sane again… And Atomica is also talking.

“I’m happy that you like my quarters, that’s a good thing! You’ll hopefully be spending a good deal of time here after all!”

For some reason I try to grimace and smile at the same time when I hear that.

“But we really do have to talk about some things!”

And Atomica is still talking…

“First off… I’m sorry.” Atomica says, her face twisting with sadness and regret, the “Feeling” in my mind becomes damp and cold and generally sort of gloomy.

“I really should have thought to tell you about the addictive side effects of my external biochemistry… and the fact that I can cure such chemical addictions both psychologically and physically. It was an important piece of information that you needed to know. And me neglecting to inform you probably had a significant effect on last night’s outcome… But I want you to know that I am not like your… previous employer.”

This time I just grimace at the mention of the bastard.

”Even if my body chemistry is addictive, I have no desire to shackle you to me with such an… insidious method! You can rest assured that unless it is your own desire, you will not be forcefully addicted to me! Well you will technically… But I’ll cure you of it! For Free!”

I’m kinda stunned here… Is this really the same girl who coerced me into having freaky monster sex with her on pain of horrible things happening to me if I refused?

I can’t trust her on her word alone!

Power! Do your thing!

_Is telling the truth/suffers from various forms of mental disorder/extreme issues with abandonment/ had not had any form of positive human contact for almost a full year before last night/Humans are a social animal/this trait has been retained by Atomica through her metamorphosis/ Robots are able to fulfill mental social needs such as conversation/But are unable to adequately simulate human contact or fulfill physical social needs/lack of positive physical contact exacerbating mental issues and neuroses/Metamorphosis has increased reproductive drives/Altered biology and psychology has created an association between Positive physical contact and Sexual relations._

That’s… That’s fucked up.

And really, really sad.

But It’s also _really fucking scary!_ What you’re getting from your powers analysis is that Atomica’s boosted sex drive and desire for physical affection had been actively degrading her sanity and her sense of morals when it came to obtaining those things ever sense she “woke up.” _And_ that she was already mentally unhealthy long before her transformation had altered her existing brain and slapped two more into her body.

All of this in the mind of a... girl? Capable of creating robot armies and _Self-replicating chemical weapons._

Hearing that a person, who could create an ever expanding doom cloud that could kill everyone in the state, was mentally unhealthy and having a hard time retaining a grip on morality or sanity was _absolutely fucking terrifying!_

Thankfully Atomica saves you from the imminent possibility of a panic attack by… continuing to apologize.

“Second… I want to apologize for what I did to you last night… When my body changed, my psychology seems to have transformed into something not quite… human anymore, and I’m still trying to come to grips with the changes and restore my previous level of self control. But none of that excuses what I did to you last night... That was barbaric! _Monstrous! Abominable!_ I am _ashamed_ of myself for behaving like that. I hope that you know that I _really_ did want to make it a night that we _both_ could enjoy, the unpleasant circumstances of your involvement aside… But how anyone could have enjoyed _that_ is beyond me. I can understand if you want to break off our… arrangement, You can, you never have to come back here again! I certainly wouldn’t if I were you! And I’ll still be keeping up my end of our bargain! You and your friends will receive a Guest status and all that that entails, no more tiny cell, or food paste! That sounds good doesn’t it?”

While I am touched that she would do all that, and I can tell she actually is sorry for last night…

There is a problem.

I have just established that Atomica has correlated Positive physical contact with sexual relations, and has extreme issues with abandonment… Honestly that actually goes a long way towards explaining her “Episode” last night.

The problem is that she is now offering to cut herself off from any chance of getting either of those two things again… When being isolated from them before was actively causing her to slowly go (more) insane.

So by doing this she would resume her spiral into ever greater levels of madness… Let me repeat, _the girl who can create Weapons of Mass Destruction, the likes of which the world has never seen, will resume her madness spiral out of guilt for her actions._

That… that seems like a ticking time bomb that I need to defuse right now!

Quick Tattletale! Think of something to say that will fix this!

“It felt good!” for once I am the one who interrupts Atomica!

…

…

…

Wait… WHAT THE FUCK DID I JUST SAY?

“... What?” Atomica seems to feel similarly to me.

Unfortunately my mouth doesn’t know when to stop!

“It. felt. Good! I liked it when you got rough with me!”

WHAT THE HELL BRAIN?! Fuck it… I’ve already gotten on the tiger, All I can do now is try and ride it...

“But… I raped you.” Atomica says

“I like a woman who takes what they want _and_ takes charge of the situation!” I reply, to my own detriment.

“I fucked you, in both holes, with no lube, that had to have hurt!” Atomica says, concerned.

“I love it when a girl puts me in my place for being uppity!” I have to say this, I have to say this to stop disaster…

“I drank a quart of your blood and choked you!” Atomica nearly yells, confusion and… eagerness? brimming in her eyes.

“And I came more than I ever have in my life!” I shout right back.

My poor little backside… I’m so sorry, neither of us deserve what I am condemning us too…

“I literally bloated you into a cum balloon until you were coughing it up and then covered you in a semen cocoon! Are you seriously okay with all of that?!” Atomica’s shout is nearly deafening.

“Good! You bred me like I was your bitch! then marked me as one! I can still smell it all over me and I fucking love it!” I scream right back.

The little sitting room goes silent, until.

“Does… Does that mean you’ll stay? With me, you won’t try and leave again?”

Atomica’s voice is… uncharacteristically small and quiet, full of uncertainty, guarded so tightly… and yet so very hopeful.

It just wasn’t right to hear her without the bombast and bravado, or the seductive croon, or even without any growling or snarling or shrieking.

I could fix that though.

“Yeah… Yeah I’ll stay!” I answer her with as much confidence as I can muster.

Suddenly I am Yanked off my feet, my vision goes dark and my entire world becomes nothing but heat and softness.

From my head's new location in Atomica’s cleavage I can hear her voice belting out a happy listing of all things we would be doing together.

“You won’t regret this I swear! I’ll show you all sorts of SCIENCE!!! And you’ll get to know all my robots and we’ll sleep together and eat together and bathe together! I still need to show you the hot tubs! Then I’ll show you even more SCIENCE!!! And I’ll make you better and tougher and faster healing!!! With SCIENCE!!! And I’ll make sure coil regrets ever being alive! With SCIENCE!!! We’ll do experiments and beat up gangers and fight crime and create a new society and build a brighter tomorrow for everyone!!! Trust me Lisa! It’s gonna be great! We’re going places, You and I!”

The things I do to save people… I really am an unsung hero aren’t I?

_Atomica is able to read your mind and knows that you meant every word/She would not be reacting this way otherwise._

_…_

_…_

_…_

No one asked you power! And you’re wrong anyways! I’m just that good!

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

_February 25th 2011 4:30 AM_

_A Bedroom._

_???? ??????_

With the press of a button, the cheap laptop whirred to life, and I began to patiently wait for the piece of plastic junk to boot up.

I’ve made… a lot of mistakes.

You see, when I was really young, I met this girl, she had gorgeous black hair and a motor-mouth that never stopped running.

We hit it off as friends really quickly. It was like it was meant to be even!

We did everything, we played together, ate together, slept together, we spent so much time at each other’s houses that our parents became friends out of necessity!

Those were… happy times, Innocent, childish.

I miss them a lot.

I remembered when we would play “Capes”... she loved to pretend to be Alexandria, an invincible heroine who always saved the day!

But she couldn’t be the hero all the time! After all for every hero… there had to be a villain, and it would be unfair if she always got to be the hero!

When she was the villain she would always be a tinker, A mad scientist with a master plan and a flair for the dramatic, some random backyard toy or park fixture becoming a machine that would blow up the moon, or mind control the city, or turn all the hamsters in the world aggressive and carnivorous.

But eventually the two of us grew older, we stopped playing pretend in the backyard, we were still friends, but we just had new interests.

Music, makeup, clothes and boys and celebrities. The usual pre-teen girl stuff.

And then… something bad happened.

Her mother died, and her dad just fell apart.

And suddenly I was her only anchor left in a world that for her, must have seemed to have gone mad overnight.

I think that may have been where it started.

As she struggled to recover from this, We both were growing up even more, and as teenage girls sometimes do… we “experimented.”

I can still remember, the feeling of her skin, the taste of her lips on mine, the pleasure, the happiness, the _love_.

Our experiments progressed and settled into a strange sort of relationship, where my black haired friend assumed control over me.

I think it helped her, with everything else in her life having gone so wrong, I think it helped for her to have some form of control over _something._

So I let her Blindfold me, I even let her tie me up a few times.

It was… nice. Despite being made so vulnerable, so _exposed,_ I knew that my friend would keep me safe, that my friend loved me and would protect me.

And so it went.

Until one day, another bad thing happened.

_Eyes, Ears, Nose, Mouth. Make your choice!_

I was more vulnerable than I had ever been, I hadn’t been safe… I still shiver every time I think about it.

I thrashed and I screamed, and kicked and flailed… but nothing worked, I couldn’t save myself.

I was weak.

But just when it seemed like everything would only get worse… I was saved… By a shadowy figure that I only just barely saw from the corners of my eyes.

And just like that, I was safe again, able to go home unscathed.

But… the memory remained, haunting me, I could hear their voices mocking me and terrorizing me in my dreams…

My parents tried to help me… but I don’t think they understood

So I tried to get closure, tried to move past it on my own.

I went back to the alley where it happened.

That’s where I met her, My shadowy savior… she talked to me, saying that I was brave for coming back to the place where it had happened.

And she told me of how she saw the world.

There were the strong, and there were the weak, predators and prey, the killers and the killed.

She thought I was strong… and I wanted to be strong, to be _safe so, so_ much!

So I believed her.

And then my friend returned.

The friend who loved me.

The friend who controlled me.

The friend I made myself vulnerable for.

And it was then that I made a mistake.

My friend was strong, she had proved that… but she made _me_ weak. Made me vulnerable and soft even as she made me feel safe.

If I ever wanted to be strong, I thought, if I never wanted to feel so weak and scared as I had in that Alley… Then I would have to cut my friend out of my life.

So I did.

I rejected her, I used cruel words to hurt her, to make her feel awful, to drive my friend away.

And it worked, she left.

And at the time I thought it was good, I had new friends now, and my old friend was strong, she would recover, she would make new friends.

But… that’s not how it turned out.

As I went into high school, my new friend followed me there… but so did my old one.

To keep her away, to keep from becoming weak again, I insulted her, mocked her, did awful things, I blamed her for killing her mother, I made fun of her grief… But in between all of that I would ignore her.

My friend was not the most socially adept, I had been her only real friend for all her life, and that was all she had needed.

When I left, she was all alone, and I thought that was fine, she was strong, she would surely find new friends.

But I had made another mistake.

I don’t want to brag… not anymore, but unlike my friend I’m good with people, I understand them easily, know how to make them like me.

As a result of this talent of mine, I rapidly rose up the student hierarchy, gaining popularity, gaining clout, gaining _influence._

Influence that would see my old friend made into a pariah.

People saw how I had treated her, to drive her away, to make her leave me alone… and they followed my example.

Soon enough my friend, my poor sweet friend, was made into an untouchable amongst the kids, and even the faculty of Winslow High.

No one talked to her except to mock or belittle her over a thousand little things and lies.

They mocked her because she was slender and tall and yet to grow into her own sort beauty, they jeered her for the death of her mother and her father's depression, they derided her and called her all sorts of horrible things, they sabotaged her school work and destroyed her possessions.

But my friend was strong, she endured all of it, and just kept going.

But even the strongest animal tires out eventually, and slowly it started to affect her. I saw it, The despair, the growing apathy, the disgust, the _hate_ hiding behind her sad eyes.

But me, stupid, _stupid_ me, I never once tried to amend my mistake. I was caught up in the popularity and my new “Friends” and so I kept ignoring her, kept mocking her, kept hurting her.

The last Time I saw her had been just a few days before our freshman year ended… There was something awful behind her eyes then. Something that wanted to hurt everyone she saw in that shit hole they called a high school.

Summer soon came, and I tried to put my old friend out of my mind, I kept hanging out with my new friends… But sometimes, late at night or when I woke up in the morning… I would miss her, miss the feeling of her skin against mine, miss the love, the miss that feeling of safety and comfort.

Summer ended… and my old friend did not return to Winslow High School.

I stayed with my new “friends” but… it was empty compared to what we had had.

My relationship with most of these other girls was shallow, talking about vapid things like makeup and clothes… We couldn’t share our secrets, couldn’t share our hopes and dreams with each other.

There was only one I could connect to really.

My shadowy savior, the girl from the alley. We had a connection. We were both “Strong”, both “Survivors” and because of that we connected, she shared her secrets with me, trusted me with them.

But there was still a distance even there, smaller maybe… But How could I share my tiny little secrets when my friend had revealed things so much weightier? And even disregarding all that, she was a cape… and I was just me.

And so it went, my old friendship gone, my new friendships empty and shallow, or distant despite everything.

It continued like that for months, Thanksgiving and then Christmas came and went.

Then… Then came Leviathan.

It was all such a rush, I remember the panic, the fear.

I remember rushing with my mom and dad to the nearest shelter, and huddling with them there, crowded in amongst so many other people, alone in the darkness of the underground bunker.

For a time.

I remember a horrible crunching noise, and one of the walls of the shelter falling to side, polluted brackish water pouring into the shelter.

I remember Leviathan staring us all down, as if was just trying to figure out who to kill first.

I remember some cape, some brave soul shouting at us to run as they charged the monster.

So we ran all of us, in a confused mob, we all went our own ways and we were all, at least in part, pushed about by roaring flood waters.

I don’t know what happened to Mom or dad, in all of that… but they never came back for me.

But I do know that at one point Leviathan had caught up with me, and a few of the other people from the shelter that had ended up with me.

It brought a wave of water that knocked us to ground and had us coughing and hacking water out of our lungs.

I remember then, seeing my new friend, the girl from the Alley, my shadowy savior on one of the nearby roofs.

As Leviathan plowed through capes and civilians alike I met eyes with her through her mask. Silently pleading with her to help me, to save me like she had before.

But as Leviathan got closer…

She left.

She left me there to die.

At that point what else could I do but give up, and accept what was about to happen?

But then… something large and metallic and black charged at leviathan glowing red hot as it did so.

There was a flash of blinding light and heat, and I was pushed back by the shockwave, deafened by the roar of an explosion.

I remember my vision clear to reveal a small mushroom cloud, and Leviathan, a deep, angry wound across its front, Now locked in battle with Alexandria and Legend themselves!

I remember being pulled to my feet by a metal limb, belonging to a robot… a creation of some independent hero Tinker, Atomica. I only knew of her from my “friends” scathing mockery of her and how she did things.

But it was Atomica’s robots that brought me to shelter, and Atomica’s robot that had wounded Leviathan by blowing itself up.

Eventually, the endbringer was driven off after who knows how much death and destruction. The monster retreating back out to sea to mend its wounds and prepare for its next attack.

Scion never appeared to save us.

After the attack… I never found my parents… never figured out what happened to them.

I ended up living with the person they had noted down in their will.

Uncle Danny.

My old friend’s father.

I had been in shambles at that point, having my own weakness ground into me like that, losing my parents, my home.

It was awful…

But I had one hope! Maybe after everything… I could finally make things right with my old friend, admit to my mistakes, atone… and maybe, eventually she would take me back.

But even that was ripped away.

When I had asked where she was… Uncle Danny broke down…

He told me about her.

My beloved old friend, who had loved to pretend to be Alexandria so she could save everyone and beat all the bad guys… had gained powers of her own, not long after I had first pushed her away that fateful summer.

My friend who had, when asked to play the villain, had taken to the role of a mad tinker with gusto… had gained tinker powers.

But my friend had always preferred to play the hero… and I guess Atomica was born.

And Leviathan was how Atomica had died.

I never even got to really say goodbye… much less even try to make up for everything I had done to her.

It was heartbreaking.

But… with my friends deaths, my Uncle Danny didn’t fall even deeper into depression, no, if anything it lit a fire inside of him.

His daughter had wanted to help people, to save the city. She had died trying to do that.

He had nothing left to live for now… but in exchange he had gained powers of his own!

And his daughter had left him a legacy to fulfill and the means to do it.

Machines that remade matter into food, into medicine, into complex electronic components.

A stockpile of tinker tech weapons and armor.

What else could I do?

I couldn’t make it up to my friend.. But I could try to make it right by continuing to do as she had done.

And that was how the Neighborhood Watch was formed, a group of former dockworkers and neighbors banding together under the leadership of “Union” equipped with Atomica Tinker tech to continue her legacy.

So… that’s what we’ve been doing for the last few weeks… Things are still rocky between me and Uncle Danny.

I had told him what I had done… and he was not happy, to put it mildly.

But it’s not like I can blame him, I deserve it.

But even still he let me live in his home, and eat his food, and help his cause.

The Neighborhood Watch is all I had left.

Well _almost_ all I had left.

In the time since I had come to live with Uncle Danny, I had sort of become a fan of Atomica… her last fan, considering that as far as anyone knew she was dead.

It was my attempt to get to know my friend after we had parted, to try and understand what she would have wanted.

To that end I had tracked down PHO threads about her past exploits, accounts of in person encounters, and her own posts.

Atomica… Had certainly remembered all those games she had played the role of the mad tinker. It was refined with age, experience, and actually having tinker tech… but a lot of how she had been as Atomica was similar to how she had played villains and their mad schemes way back then.

But what I see on the screen now is none of that… and it gives me _hope._

My name is Emma Barnes… And I’m going to make things right. No matter what it takes.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

■

**♦ Topic: The Official Atomica Fan Thread, HOME OF ALL THINGS SCIENCE!!!!**

**In: Boards ► Capes ► Cape threads**

**Sweshyswev** (Original Poster) (At Ground Zero: Brockton Bay) (Founder of the Atomica Fan club)

Posted On Feb 1st 2010:

Welcome to the Official Atomica Fan Thread! Where we can all talk about Our favorite woman of SCIENCE!!!

If you don't know Atomica then here are a few links to threads detailing her Exploits!

Atomica's Debut. (she actually saved some friends of mine from the ABB)

Atomica captures Cricket. (RIP Stormtiger's Dignity)

Atomica Captures Stormtiger!

Atomica repeatedly explodes Alabaster until he gives up and runs away.

She's done a lot more than that of course! and I'm sure she'll be doing plenty more in the future!

So to start up the chat... What do you all like about Our favorite SCIENTIST!!!

> **(Showing page 524 of 524)**

> **►Sweshyswev** (Original Poster) (At Ground Zero: Brockton Bay) (Founder of the Atomica Fan club)
> 
> Replied On Jan 25th 2011:
> 
> Well... It's been over a Week Since Leviathan... and there have been no sighting of Atomica since then... She normally puts in some sort of appearance every other day.
> 
> No one has even seen any of her robots...
> 
> I guess she really is gone.
> 
> Rest In Peace, you SCIENTIFIC!!! soul!
> 
> You'll always have a place in our hearts! and in our brains!
> 
> **►Atomica!** (Verified Cape) (SCIENCE!!!)
> 
> Replied On Feb 25th 2011:

**End of Page. 524,**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well that's the end of the current chapter folks!
> 
> Remember I love feedback, criticism and praise equally, so give me some comments please!
> 
> Oh and if you like my stuff then you might be interested to know that I have a patreon page! If you like the things I write, then maybe consider donating so I don't have to be a wage slave for the rest of my life!
> 
> Seriously! consider it, Depending on your tier you can get anything from participating in polls that I'll probably use to decide on new projects, to getting sneak peaks, to even just straight up getting chapters a day or two early!
> 
> The URL for my patreon is...
> 
> https://www.patreon.com/Visv
> 
> Alright, that's just about it! See you next chapter!


	10. Impregnations, Conversations, and Preparations (Part 1)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Holiday season is draining both my energy and my available free time! So The next few chapters are probably gonna be a bit shorter than normal! Hope that's okay.

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_ February 26th 6:00 AM _

_ Vault Zero: Atomica’s Personal Quarter’s _

_ Atomica/Taylor Hebert. _

_ *BEEP!* *BEEP!* *BEEP!* * _ **_CRUNCH!!!_ ** _ * _

Another day, another alarm clock destroyed for its impudence! And that means that it is time to start my morning routine!

Give my order to the  _ beverage-o-tron _ !? Check!

Give the order for a light breakfast to the  _ Snackatronic 3000!?  _ Check! 

Take a shower? Check!

Plates, horns, and spines polished? Check!

Teeth Brushed! Check!

Skin cleansed of filth and grime! Check!

A Nice cup of radiation enriched tea? Check!

Alright… What’s on the “To-Do” list for today? I needed to make some announcements, Then I need to start actually building General Duncan’s body, as well as prototyping the new varieties of Attack Bots to reinforce the Gutsies,  _ and  _ start designing the new surveillance and test subject retrieval bots… 

Then I’ll have a heavy lunch… I’m in the mood for something greasy and meaty…

After that I need to join up with Belladonna to work on the Bio-organic weapons project! Then I need to talk to Florence about getting  _ my  _ Tattletale a proper check up and examination.

Needed to get the measurements for her cybernetic augmentations after all!

Oh yes! Speaking of Tattletale! I still need to actually follow through on my deal with her! I Need to move the rest of the Undersiders out of the Criminal Containment Cells! It kind of fell by the wayside yesterday, but It does need to be done, and the sooner the better! I’m a woman(?) of my word after all!!!

That means I’ll need Odelina to dust off three or four guest rooms, I’m not quite sure If Lisa wants to room with me just yet, So we’ll do four just in case...

She will eventually, but moving her in now might be a bit too far too fast!

Then I need to have Grue and Regent sedated and undergo the surgical procedure to remove their collars, modify their settings to remove the pain induction function, alter the parameters under which immobilization is authorized, and finally replace the re-programmed collars!

At least I had had the foresight to have already sedated Rachel as soon as she was out of her teammates sight and had that all done for her collar two days ago! 

I may be giving them guest rooms and more lenient treatment… but they were still villains who had tried to rob me! A bit of caution never hurt anyone!

Then, after that’s done and they regain consciousness we can get The Undersiders lined up for another assembly, explain the new situation to them, give Tattletale the credit as the one who successfully bettered their lot in life through her “superb negotiation skills.” 

I mean she did do some very  _ nice  _ things with her tongue… So that  _ technically  _ counts as a sort of negotiation right?

That doesn’t really matter! Point is I’m gonna spin things to try and mend that rift between my Tattles and her friends!

After dealing with the undersiders for the day, along with everything else, that should leave me just enough time to do some brainstorming before I go check up on my robots personally! Family needs to spend time with each other right?

Yeah, definitely.

But before I can get started on any of that… I have an important decision to make!

To wake Lisa… or to let her sleep until I’m done with the morning announcements?

She looks almost as comfortable burrowed into the bed as she looked when she was snuggled up to me!

Yeah… I’ll let her sleep for a bit longer!

Time for the morning address, and then?

Then it was time for SCIENCE!!!

XXXX

The halls of Vault zero were only just beginning to stir, the robots leaving their charging stations to begin a brand new day of glorious work in the name of SCIENCE!!!

As usual for this time of the morning, the intercom soon begins to crackle, the roving Automata turn their heads/Optical sensors towards the nearest speaker eager to hear and heed the words of their creator!

“GOOD MORNING MY LEGIONS OF PRECIOUS ROBOTIC CHILDREN! I WOULD JUST LIKE TO REMIND YOU ALL THAT TODAY IS, IN FACT, A RETURN TO THE NORMAL WORK SCHEDULE. THIS OF COURSE INCLUDES MYSELF. IF YOU NEED MY ASSISTANCE OR INPUT, I WILL BE LOCATED IN EITHER THE ROBOT ASSEMBLY BAY OR THE ROBOT TESTING RANGE FROM APPROXIMATELY 7:30 AM TO 12:00 PM. ALSO! CHIEF PHYSICIAN FLORENCE, LEAD ASSISTANT ODELINA i NEED TO SPEAK TO YOU BOTH, IN MY PRIVATE QUARTERS, PREFERABLY WITHIN THE NEXT TWENTY MINUTES! THAT IS ALL! HAVE A NICE DAY!”

Their beloved creators' words having now given way to silence, the varied robots of Vault Zero make to return to their designated tasks, when suddenly the intercom crackles to life once more!

“AND ANOTHER THING! IT HAS RECENTLY COME TO MY ATTENTION THAT  _ SOMEONE  _ IS USING WIGGLES THE WONDER TUMOR AS A RADIOACTIVE WASTE DISPOSAL METHOD. WHOEVER AMONG YOU IS DOING THIS… CEASE THIS UNAUTHORIZED ACTIVITY IMMEDIATELY! WIGGLES THE WONDER TUMOR HAS ONLY BEEN APPROVED AS A BIO-WASTE DISPOSAL METHOD! ATTEMPTING TO USE WIGGLES THE WONDER TUMOR AS A RADIOACTIVE WASTE DISPOSAL METHOD IS STRICTLY PROHIBITED. ANY FURTHER USE OF WIGGLES THE WONDER TUMOR FOR THE PURPOSE OF RADIOACTIVE WASTE DISPOSAL WILL BE MET WITH A HARSH SCOLDING, AND THE IMMEDIATE REVOKING OF ALL OF THE CULPRIT’S VENDOTRON PRIVILEGES FOR THE NEXT FOUR WEEKS! I AM SERIOUS ABOUT THIS! I’M NOT HAVING A REPEAT OF THE SUPER TURKEY INCIDENT! STOP EXPOSING MY PRECIOUS ABOMINATIONS AGAINST NATURE TO UNAPPROVED MUTAGENIC SUBSTANCES! THAT IS ALL! HAVE A NICE DAY… AGAIN!”

This time, when the vault intercoms crackled their last and faded into silence, it did not spring back to life. And so, the words of their creator heard and heeded, the robots of Vault Zero returned to their work!

XXXX

Alright! That was the announcements seen too!

And that meant that it was time for me to wake my Lisa!

As I walk back to my bed, I seamlessly descend to stalking forward on all fours, quadrupedal movement feeling just as natural as bipedal locomotion!

As I near my slumbering prey, my steps soften, my movement slows to crawl… Slowly,  _ carefully  _ I make my way forwards!

Then I pounce!

I proceed to force my tongue past her sealed lips and down her throat and psychically shout at her to wake up!

My Tattletale’s eyes fly open in shock, before she gives in and accepts the kiss!

It feels nice, slithering my tongue over Lisa’s own, then scraping along her tonsils and down her throat, but we can’t do this forever! Literally! She can only hold her breath for about a minute and I…

Actually how long  _ can  _ I hold my breath for now?

Well, that was yet another work of SCIENCE!!! I would have to perform on myself at some point…

But later! There was work that needed to be done!

I Pull my tongue back out of My Lisa’s warm, wet throat, making sure to wiggle it as I did.

Judging by what I’m getting from her brain, she likes that! Excellent!

Finally, I pull the last few inches of my tongue back into my mouth with a slurping noise before popping my lips.

“Wakey Wakey Lisa! It is a bright new day for SCIENCE!!! And you get to be a part of it!” 

Yes, It was going to be a good day! I could just feel it!

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_ February 26th 6:30 AM _

_ Vault Zero: In transit. _

_ Tattletale/Lisa Wilbourn _

  
  


Moving through the halls of “Vault Zero” as Atomica called it, was much the same as it had been the last two times I had done it.

Robots rushing about to enact repairs across the enormous facility, errant sparks flying from robots soldering wires or welding plates of metal, the sound of industrial tools buzzing, shrieking, and howling in the distance for the sake on unknown renovations… Really nothing much had changed at all!

Well, maybe a few things.

I was still a little…  _ sore  _ from my  _ tryst  _ with Atomica two days earlier it wasn’t anywhere near as bad as I had expected considering… well everything that had happened during said  _ tryst,  _ but still I had a bit of a limp.

Then, of course, there was the fact that instead of being escorted by one of the Tinker’s robotic minions I was instead accompanied by Atomica herself.

Yes right in front of me, sinuously prowling forward on all fours, was the SCIENTIST!!! Herself!

Okay seriously why do I keep doing that to any word involving SCIENCE!!!... Damnit!

I’m just gonna ignore that… issue for now and continue with what I was previously thinking.   
  


Atomica moved with an easy, confident grace, a commanding sort of gait.

Like a SCIENTIST!!! In her lab, a queen in her court, a spider in her parlor… or perhaps an Apex Predator patrolling its territory….

…

…

...

Also it made her butt and hips sway back and forth, back and forth, back forth… 

I kept my focus on that, purely for the Aesthetic appeal of course! 

I was just going to ignore that one of her eyes growing on her tail was looking at me, looking at her.

I was also going to ignore that it was  _ preening  _ under the attention.

How it could preen at all, as a single eye growing on the side of a tail that looked more like a horrific alien space worm, was simply beyond me.

So, in an attempt to shove aside my unanswerable questions, I turned to the one thing that had always served me well!

Talking!

“Sooooo Ms. Atomica I was wondering…” I started to speak… perhaps I’m a bit rusty after that week in the cells…

Atomica just lets out a short laugh.

“Ha! No, no no! Ms. Atomica was my  _ mother’s name!  _ Well, not really, “Atomica” being a cape pseudonym and all… but you get the idea! It’s much too formal for my tastes! Just call me Atomica!  _ Or  _ if you  _ really  _ want to show the proper reverence to my obvious superiority and capabilities, you can call me “Boss”, “Boss-lady” “Supreme Overlady Atomica” or “Doctor Atomica MD PHD DDS!” alternatively if we’re in a more  _ intimate~”  _

Atomica’s voice lowered and took on a velvety, sensual aspect that made my knees weak and my brain echo with the sensation of a familiar warm, slick haze.

“Situation, You  _ will  _ call me  _ Mistress Atomica~”  _

Instantly Atomica’s voice returned to its normal boisterous volume and tone.

“I prefer all those names and titles much more than “Ms” I hope you understand!”

Still trying to pull myself back together after the unexpected plunge into an ocean of  _ safewarmcomfortpleasure _ **_submission_ ** I can hardly do anything besides keep walking and nod my assent to my  _ mistress's…  _ Atomica’s orders!

But it only took me a few more seconds to shake that off… and then something started to bug me…

“You have multiple doctorates?” 

There’s no way, Atomica couldn’t have been any older than I was! 

“Well not officially…” Atomica says, and I’m about to indulge in a caught out lie… before she keeps going!

“But I’m more capable than all those worthless eggheads in the universities put together! Seriously I try to generously share my cold fusion technology and they tell me “Tinker tech related knowledge can’t be taught Atomica!”, “You can’t reverse engineer tinker technology Atomica!” “Our resources would be better spent on research the average can actually benefit from Atomica!,” “Your nuclear power is unsafe atomica!,” “Cold fusion is a hoax Atomica!, and, my personally most hated excuse! “Even if we could do it! Which we can’t, It would put the fossil fuel industry out of business Atomica!” 

Atomica’s voice rises to the point where I can feel my ears ring with every word, as she launches into an angry rant!

  
  


“They didn’t even look at my designs or consult my research! Like I was some sort of hack fraudster charlatan who didn’t understand what I was doing inside and out! I’m not L33T for SCIENCE’S!!! Sake!” 

I’m beginning to think I may have unknowingly stepped on a metaphorical land mine here…

But despite my ever growing certainty of having made a horrible mistake, Atomica kept ranting, her voice rising all the while.

“Can they not comprehend that the simple insertion of a beryllium agitator into a Photonic Resonance Chamber would properly catalyze a brief moment of low heat high energy atomic movement and thus cold start a self sustaining fusion reaction?!?!? And then there’s the nonsense about needing the hopelessly corrupt and inefficient fossil fuel industry!!! THE COWARDS!!! THE FOOLS!!! Well I’ll show them! I’ll SHOW THEM ALL!!! SOON! SOOON!!! My fusion power stations will take the city by storm! Restoring power and prosperity for all and achieving what the Government and university snobs never could!!! Then they will have no choice but to acknowledge my superiority and apologize for their idiotic dismisall of my clear brilliance!!! And I will finally make that one hot but bitchy professor at Brockton U kiss my feet for her impudence!!! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!” 

It is only now, As Atomica’s rant descends into full blown, genuine maniacal laughter, and my mind crackles with the electricity of insanity and mushroom clouds made of red smog and pure innovation, that I begin to realize the sheer depths of the madness that I have sunk myself into.

Well… 

It was still better than being drugged up and trapped in Coil’s basement!

Atomica continues to laugh maniacally for, by my count, five minutes straight. And while she’s doing that, I’m just left standing awkwardly beside her in the hallway for the entire time as the passing robots ignore the entire spectacle and continue with whatever they were doing.

But finally, Atomica’s mad laughter begins to fade first to chuckles then to faint giggles, and finally a soft sigh, before she finally seems to fully gather a hold of herself.

She turns her head and blinks at the sight of me, before her cheeks flush with a faint dusting of glowing green.

“Ahh! I’m sorry about that! Sometimes I can get rather…  _ caught up  _ in my emotions, I’m sure you know what it’s like!”

Atomica says embarrassedly… but despite her words, she doesn’t actually seem that sorry about it? Almost like she’s… happy? About revealing that side of herself to someone else?

_ Already views you as a friend/long term isolation has rendered her desperate for human companionship/Easily becomes attached/views you as a girlfriend/mate/wife/concubine/consort/Views you as subordinate and submissive to herself/views you as  _ **_hers_ ** _ /Extremely possessive/Will not let you go. _

Well thanks power! 

On one hand, I’m kinda scared, considering that a being that could rip me in half on a whim apparently has decided that she  _ owns  _ me.

On the other hand, behind all the madness and the monstrosity that was Atomica, there was someone lonely and sad. And it was… Nice? To know that I was making her happy.

I am  _ definitely  _ not aroused at the thought of  _ belonging to  _ that lonely, sad, strong, monstrous, and mad girl. That warmth in between my legs is simply the warm fuzzy feeling people get when they help someone else. That’s all!

I need to get my mind off of this!

Time to talk again!

“So… Boss, where are you taking me exactly? I don’t remember heading this way before.” I ask, desperately hoping that I’m not about to set off another rant on Atomica’s part or a bout of introspection on mine!

Thankfully Atomica seems much more… controlled, with this question!

“Oh! Yes! I never told you did I! I’m taking you down to the medical wing! We’re gonna get you a check up! Get the measurements and data necessary to make you a new,  _ more fitting  _ collar! Nothing but the best for me and mine after all! Get your measurements for some new clothing! I’ve got this idea for a stealth suit that I think you would love! You used to be a thief right? A Smash and Grab and get-away artist? I’m not just gonna let your talents go to waste! Oh yeah and we’ll probably check in on what my various secretions from the other night are doing to your DNA!”

Okay… most of that made sense, It had been a while since I’ve had any sort of medical appointment… and it would be nice to this clunky thing off my neck. Some new clothes and the possibility of actually getting to go out and do stuff, presumably under Atomica’s employ this time, well… both of those things were nice to hear!

Wait… 

“What was that last bit about my DNA?!” I half shouted.

“Nothing nothing!” Atomica said in that characteristic “Lying to you to keep you from freaking out” way. “Just forget you ever heard anything! Trust Mama Atomica! You’ll be  _ fine!  _ Your mine now after all! And I take care of what’s mine!”

I’m about to ask more questions, but then the oily fog wraps itself around my brain again and it’s all I can do just to keep following  _ Mistress  _ Atomica…

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_ February 26th 8:30 AM _

_ Vault Zero: Z-08 Medical Treatment Facility. _

_ Florence. _

I exist to help others, to save them, to uplift them!

Literally! That is why I was built! To research, innovate, and apply new means of saving and/or improving human lives! It is an endeavor that I am most passionate about!

It’s in my nature, I can’t help but look at others and want to help them! To make them safe and comfortable and loved! Of course there are limits, but for those who have earned it, my love is boundless, and it’s depths are infinite. That is just who I am!

Even for my sister,  _ especially  _ for my sister, Belladonna is violent, misanthropic, hateful and utterly insensitive, but she is my sister nonetheless and I love her as such.

And despite all of her mockery and insults, I know she loves me as well.

Sometimes I feel like she will drive me to malfunction, and sometimes she makes me just want to  _ pin her in place and show her the meaning of restraint! _

But she is still my twin sister, and I still love her.

I love all of my family! I love my Amiable and easy going elder brother, Wright, I love my stern orderly sister Rosetta, I love AIVA, and her odd paradox of professionalism and childishness, I love Odelina, Prim and proper, sometimes even cold, but so very sweet and loving if you truly knew her.

I love all of the robots in the vault too! Although there is one sweet builder who holds a  _ special place  _ in my neurocomputational matrix! How could he not? When he was so sweet? So  _ Romantic _ ?

Jimmy really was a good boyfriend!

Of course, While I am talking about the people that I love… I couldn’t  _ not  _ mention my mother.

And there can be no other word for Atomica, not really, she created me, gave me life and purpose, gave me the chance and the tools I needed to help this world I have already come to love, despite my short time in it! I can’t ever repay the debt that I owe her for giving me the gift of life… But I can try!

So, when she asked to help her perform a full medical examination on her new “paramour”, one of the captured ruffians that had invaded the vault. I said yes, despite my misgivings and distrust of the patient in question.

Now, as I look over the results of the cell samples I had taken from “Tattletale” I can only think one thing!

That I’m certainly glad that I had put aside my misgivings! The Data! The Data here was astounding! The implications and  _ applications,  _ if these results were accurate would be… amazing!

I’m sure that my mother will agree! The SCIENCE!!! Alone would ensure that, but combined with the need to “Expose” more subjects to the “Experimental Material?” It was inconceivable that she would refuse such an undertaking!

My mother has always been a bit… libidinous. If anything her recent metamorphosis has only exacerbated that aspect of her! But it's fine, it’s only natural, and while I lack the anatomy to understand the exact nature of the drives my mother is beholden to.  _ I do  _ have passions of my own!

Besides, I can understand the appeal of  _ restraining an unruly subject  _ quite well!

But enough about my  _ mère’s  _ reproductive habits! 

I still need to deliver these results to the patient, I’m sure  _ maman’s  _ already finished the gauntlet of scans she wanted to run, So there really is no reason to delay!

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_ February 26th 8:45 AM _

_ Vault Zero: Z-08 Medical Treatment Facility. _

_ Tattletale/Lisa Wilbourn. _

Atomica’s idea of a medical checkup was…  _ thorough. _

I’ve been poked, prodded, drained, scraped, and scanned in just about every way you could scan a person at this point! Atomica and “Florence” tag team examining me with brutal efficiency.

But now, all the work is done, Atomica finished running me through some sort of Tinkertech brain scan machine, sat me down on this exam table, and then promptly zoned out into some sort of tinker fugue, mumbling to herself about “Stabilizing Gyros” and “Self Repair Systems.” 

So, there was really nothing left for me to do but wait. I could try to strike up a conversation, but I don’t want to know how Atomica will react if I interrupt her… episode. One crazy rant was enough for me, thank you very much!

Thankfully, I didn’t have to wait long, “Florence” as Atomica had called her, came floating back into the room only a few minutes after her creator had sunk into her own thoughts. Despite her lack of a human body, something about how she moved gave a sense of… Excitement?

“Good news! Very good news,  _ Mademoiselle  _ Lisa! You are in perfect health! Better than perfect health even!” The robot says, her french accent bursting with a manic sort of energy.

“ _ How _ am I better than perfect exactly? I’m no doctor… But i’m  _ pretty sure  _ that perfect is as good as it’s supposed to get? I ask, quite frankly, I’m kind of afraid of what answer I’ll receive.

Of course, my fear does not stop Florence from answering.

“That should be obvious! You are better than a perfectly healthy human female of your age and size! What else could I have meant? You see! during your “intercourse” with my mother, your body was injected with or otherwise exposed to copious amounts of stimulants, mutant hormones, self integrating genetic fragments, and various mutagenic chemicals! These substances have, over the past two days, been affecting a significant change over your internals! Really the results are quite fascinating! I'll have to talk with my mother once she is less… preoccupied, about acquiring more subjects!”

_ What?! _

“Wait… Are you telling me that I’m going to turn into something not human like Tall red and scary over there!?” I ask the pink robot alarmed, I did not sign up to become some sort of freaky mutant girl!  _ Even if it might be fun…  _ No! I am not okay with this!

Florence just… giggles?

“No! No no no! Of course not! Nothing anywhere close to that extreme! Several of the factors involved in Atomica’s Metamorphosis would not be replicable with such low dosages! Here I’ll show you my findings!” 

Suddenly the Doctor bot’s floating speeds up, and she is.. Uncomfortably close to me, shoving some sort of retro-tablet into my face, as I begin to try and decipher the scrolling green text on a black background, Florence continues speaking at a mile a minute.

“You see the connections between your cells have chemically altered with this set of compounds here! Not only resulting in your various tissues showing a 100% increase in resistance to tearing or piercing, but also creating a 500% increase in tissue elasticity! Then there are these genetic sequences that have integrated into your cells! They have significantly increased telomerase production, and have also improved error checking of your DNA sequences during mitosis, while at the same time accelerating the rate of cellular mitosis by roughly 50%! This means that your aging is likely to be significantly slowed, and it is quite possible that your aging has been entirely eliminated! All while, if my estimates are correct, increasing your ability to quickly recover from physical trauma! Then there these sequences here, that have modified your hormone production to produce a sort of “Mutant Growth Hormone” in large amounts which will likely affect the growth of both muscle and fatty deposits in areas related to the reproductive processes, in addition this hormone modifies osteoblast behaviour, which will likely begin to generate changes to the structure and composition of your bones over the next few months! Of course there are other potential effects that may not have manifested yet but overall this…”

As Florence joined her creator in her descent into incomprehensible science babble I could sit there, trying to process this and what it might mean…

I mean, from what I actually  _ could  _ understand… Atomica’s sexual fluids have basically made me harder to stab, and faster to recover from things stabbing me anyway… and acted as a fountain of youth…

All while “Increasing growth in areas associated with reproduction” I wasn’t dumb, this meant that Atomica’s cum is making me grow bigger boobs and a bigger butt!

Either that or I was misunderstanding something… But I doubt I misunderstood what was being said here.

I’m not sure how I felt about my body being modified this way… Did Atomica know something like this might happen?

I mean it’s not really that bad, honestly it sounds like a net benefit… But I can’t help but notice that Good deal of these changes would make it both more appealing, and easier for Atomica to fuck me stupid again…

I mean I wasn’t totally lying when I told her I enjoyed it after all, it would be pretty hard  _ not  _ to enjoy something that gave you hours of marathon orgasms! But still! The idea of my body being made into an even better…  _ fucktoy!  _ For Atomica was… not appealing.

Definitely not appealing at all.

My thoughts are interrupted by Florence deciding to speak up just one last time.

“Oh yes I almost forgot! Congratulations Mademoiselle! You’re Pregnant!” The pink robot says happily.

Oh well that was… wait…

“ **_WHAT!!??!!??”_ **

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**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well that's the end of the current chapter folks!
> 
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> Alright, that's just about it! See you next chapter!


	11. Impregnations, Conversations, and Preparations (Part 2)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Another Chapter for you guys! 
> 
> Alright just want to let you know that since next week contains Christmas, the next chapter will probably be a little bit delayed on account of all the festivities and all...
> 
> That's... pretty much it! Happy holidays!
> 
> Enjoy the story folks!

_February 26th 2011 11:00 AM  
Vault Zero: X-42 Robo-Warfare Facility.  
Atomica/Taylor Hebert._  
  
The X-42 Robo-Warfare Facility was one of the oldest areas in my vault. Part workshop, part factory, part warehouse, part barracks, and part testing range, this facility was meant to serve all my robotic needs! And fulfill all of my robot’s needs as well!  
  
Currently the workshop is nearly silent, except for the sound of a soldering iron, and the background hum of various computers and machinery.  
  
This part of the facility has been soundproofed, so not even the cacophony of ongoing repairs to heavy machinery taking place just a room or two over can be heard. It’s a good thing too! I need to focus if I’m going to do this right! Soldering is an exercise in precision at the best of times, But when I’m forced to work with tools that are proportioned for a body less than half my size?  
  
That’s a _real_ challenge! One that I am happy to rise too! Because I am the greatest SCIENTIST!!! Alive!  
  
If I didn’t rise to this challenge and just let my machines do all the work on General Duncan’s body I wouldn’t be able to look at myself in the mirror!  
  
After all, it’s important that I build some things with my own hands. Yes, I have assembly lines and robots that can do it for me... But I like to put a personal touch on my newest creations. I had built Walter and Wright myself, Rosetta and the twins, Odelina, My laser pistols, my old costume and equipment… Even AIVA, the most intricate and complex of my creations, had been carefully assembled and programmed by my own two hands.  
  
It’s my labor that truly transforms my creations from tools and machines into _something more_. To use a turn of phrase I need to “put my heart and soul” into the act of creation… At least for that first time that I create something new.  
  
After that first build, that “spark” that “Essence” that… _Je ne sais quoi,_ will carry on through the template… But if I’m creating something for the very first time? It has to be me, otherwise a robot is just a machine, and a weapon just a tool.  
  
Is it superstitious and inefficient? Yes! But Irrationality is also of SCIENCE!!!  
  
It also helps that building things myself is… soothing, calming, It’s easy to just go with the flow of molten metal and sparking electricity. It helps me think, Helps me shut out the world and sort through myself even as I sort through machinery.  
  
So as I sit here carefully tweaking and tightening and welding and soldering the final touches on a new robot, pouring a piece of myself into my new creation, into Walter’s successor… That’s what I do.  
  
I think about things, about certain recent events.  
  
Life… is like a card game. You are dealt a hand, and you just have to make the best of it.  
  
But I’m having trouble figuring out what to make of the hand I’ve just been dealt.  
  
After Florence’s little “Announcement” about my Lisa’s state of health… and her pregnancy, Tattletale had let out quite the shout, maybe even matching up to some of my quieter ones!  
  
Impressive for a girl who _currently_ only has normal, human lungs.  
  
But after her little shouting fit, Lisa had passed out, probably from shock.  
  
I, being the gentlemutant that I am, took her back to my room to sleep it off... Or is it “our” room now? I’m certainly not going to accept her being left to her own devices when she’s full of our spawn!  
  
Spawn that I am the father of…  
  
Well that’s something I never thought I would have reason to think.  
  
I mean even before my mutation, I didn’t really plan on ever having the chance to be any sort of parent, It just didn’t seem to be in the cards for me. And even if by some freak chance I did end up having a child… Well I certainly didn’t plan on being the father!  
  
You know what? That’s still pretty weird to think, so I’m just gonna call myself the child’s “Mother” in my head.  
  
Even if the idea of being called “Daddy” does have a certain primal appeal…  
  
I violently shake my head to clear away my libidinous thoughts.  
  
The point is! This is the hand I have been dealt, unexpected or not! I have been gifted the ability to sire children via my mutation, and I have inadvertently done so! Nothing left to do but take responsibility!  
  
Besides, I would be a poor SCIENTIST!!! Indeed if I didn’t attempt to understand exactly what had allowed this course of events to occur… Or if I didn’t observe the product of this unprecedented coupling!  
  
I mean, this really shouldn’t have been possible considering the radical differences between our biologies and how Much PIV I had been exposed to… This pregnancy happening indicates a startling outlier from the Pan Immunity Virion’s normal mutagenic behaviors, after all, it normally renders any sort of gamete nonfunctional, at least for samples of mammalian origin…  
  
Perhaps it has something to do with the various non-mammalian DNA Samples that have integrated into my genome? I hadn’t gotten around to testing the PIV on anything other than lab rats and human cells cultures before I had shut the Pan-Immunity Virion Project down… Perhaps it’s time to Restart PIV research!  
  
Actually you know what? Pan Immunity Virion Is no longer a sufficiently accurate name for it, it needs a new one… After this metamorphosis that it had been so critical in and the various mutations that had occurred in test subjects… Forcing them down a new evolutionary path… Forcing _me_ down a new evolutionary path, albeit with the help of few other factors…  
  
Well… why get too fancy with it?  
  
I’ll have to change the designation when I go down to the Z-9 DNA Modification and Splicing Facility.  
  
…  
…  
…  
  
But that will have to wait for later!  
  
Seriously I’m getting off track again, and I **_really_** shouldn’t be! This is serious! I’ve impregnated _my_ Lisa with a mutant child that should not exist by any means! Is it even safe for her to bring it to term? I have no idea! But I’ll need to find out fast, because according to Florence’s scans the zygote is developing and dividing at an astounding rate. Going through the rough equivalent of four weeks of development in approximately two days.  
  
Quite frankly, if it weren’t for the fact that my own mutant biology act’s similarly on the cellular level, I would have assumed that my Tattletale had been exposed to some of Belladonna’s hyper-carcenogenator, not that she had gotten pregnant!  
  
But she had! She had gotten pregnant and _what the fuck am I supposed to do about that!?!?_  
  
Well first I would need to ask Lisa what _she_ wanted to do… she _was_ the one actually carrying the child and all. The part of me that had grown up learning feminist thought from my mother demanded as much…  
  
And yet there was another part of me that screamed and howled and raged at the idea of ever putting the fate of my offspring into the hands of another, I had won, I had tamed her and made her mine… So I called all the shots now right?  
  
No, such barbarity is not me… not all of me at least! I may be a mutant monstrosity! But I am also an enlightened modern woman of science! A hero!  
  
Lisa deserves a say in this whole affair just as much as, if not more than, I do!  
  
But despite all of that… The beast still howls in the back of “me” and a serpentine thing leaves oily trails across my mind that tempt me into asserting more control over _my_ Tattletale, eroding her will and agency even further than I already have.  
  
In the end, I’m not able to come to any sort of agreement with myself about the matter… And so I throw myself back into the soothing flow of _creating._  
  
Well at least one thing is going the way I expected it too…  
  
General Duncan’s body is coming along just fine… After today I’ll just need to finish up the programming for his various internal systems, test and tweak it all, then Insert my new general’s computational matrix.  
  
Just need to do a bit more wiring, and then connect the Auto-Axle... and I’ll be able to call this part of the day done…  
  
After this I’ll take a quick lunch break, then it’s on to the Genetics facility! Who knows, maybe overseeing the gestation of artificial lifeforms within artificial wombs will help me cope with the “Natural” lifeform I left to gestate within Tattletales!  
  
…  
…  
...  
  
Also I needed to make sure that Belladonna’s reach wasn’t exceeding her grasp. Vault Zero, in it’s currently crippled state, could not survive another fiasco on the level of the Six Hour Fashion Feud…  
  
Neither a mother’s nor a SCIENTIST’S!!! work is ever done!  
  
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX  
 _February 26th 2011 12:00 PM  
Vault Zero: Everywhere.  
AIVA._  
  
Alright so… Repairs on the remaining large scale matter conversion machines continue, I just need to do the math real quick… My current estimates put the completion date of the LS-MCM repairs at 71.3333285 hours from now.  
  
The LS-MCM’s being restored to full functionality will exponentially increase the rate of repairs across the rest of the vault… The Restoration of the robot assembly lines will complete within twenty four hours of the LS-MCM’s regaining full functionality. From there it should be trivial to establish a constant stream of new robots to start enacting repairs in other damaged sections of Vault Zero.  
  
Taking all of that into account… Vault Functionality will return to one hundred percent by the eighth of March. Leaving us with exactly twelve days to begin the production of new Gutsies, and the implementations of new designs before we reach Atomica’s established deadline.  
  
By Atomica’s decree, March 20th is Emergence Day.  
  
It’ll be cutting it close… but considering Atomica’s biology demands less than half the amount of sleep her previous human form did... She _should_ be able to finish up her personally built units before then, which will allow us to begin proper mass production.  
  
Future projections are looking good overall! I’ll need to go over them later and make sure to account for any variables… But for now they should be accurate enough!  
  
Now, I should probably check in on the rest of the vault! You know, Check to see if I need to do the whole “Administrating” thing, while Atomica is off on her lunch break. That sort of thing _is_ my job after all!  
  
So with a flex of cyber-muscles I open all of my “eyes” scattered across the vault, really they’re the various surveillance systems Atomica had installed and then later granted me access too, but they might as well be my eyes!  
  
As soon as I give the order, hundreds of streams of visual and audio information begin pouring into my mind like a river. Sights and sounds from all across the vault gathered up and put at my fingertips! Nothing Escapes my knowledge! I see everything ! I hear everything! I _know_ everything!  
  
Well everything inside Vault Zero anyway, my eyes on the outside world are still pretty limited at the moment...  
  
Anyways! The first place to receive my attention is, of course, my mother’s personal quarters.  
  
Tattletale is… still unconscious, and still clad in the green bathrobe, I’ll check in again on my mother’s consort later… Normally I wouldn’t pay any mind to her except for my… studies of her “interactions” with my mother.  
  
But, she _is_ carrying a new sibling of mine, and that is of interest to me!  
  
Moving on from the bedroom, I spy Atomica in the dining area of her quarter’s… sitting on her haunches and drooling glowing green slime as various automated system’s stack a slowly growing mountain of cheeseburgers in front of her.  
  
Giving the food-pile a quick estimate… it’s probably around two hundred kilos of food over all, and the pile is still growing. Let’s just take a quick look at her orders to the vendotrons… two hundred and thirty kilograms of cheeseburgers, and a fifty gallon drum of her cola recipe with added Q4N&-UM isotopes… Yes that seems to be about normal for her new physiology.  
  
Well then, I’ll just leave my mother to eat in privacy…  
Now what?  
  
I’ve already gone over the X-complex for the repair’s EToC… Guess I should check in on how Rosetta and her girls are doing with the other prisoner’s.  
  
Scratch that, I seem to have peaked in on them in the middle of transporting the sedated male members of the Undersiders for their collar reprogramming.  
  
Rachel Lindt, on the other hand, has been moved to a different location from the typical cell, So that she can be near her dogs… Under careful supervision of course!  
  
Well… That all seems to be in order.  
  
Well… I suppose that means that it’s time to make sure Belladonna isn’t accidentally going to destroy part of the vault again…  
  
Nope, everythings fine over there, Belladonna is just busy milling around a bunch of… Are those eggs?  
  
Yes, indeed they are, tiny, tiny eggs slowly growing and gestating in one of the artificial wombs…  
  
Well then… That isn’t something to be worried about _right now_ is it?  
  
A few moments pass as I survey the rest of the vault, watching robots proceed with repairs, or indulge in their hobbies. I gaze upon the Dozens of floaters that are safely ensconced within their habitat, floating gently upon mild air currents.  
  
Another camera shows Wiggles undergoing it’s daily trimming, excess biomass being pruned away with Surgical precision by several Ms. Merci’s and then incinerated so as to prevent the tumorous mass from overrunning the entire vault with its endless growth.  
  
Well, nothing is amiss, the vault seems to be running at maximum possible efficiency!  
  
That took forever! A full 5 seconds to go over it all!  
  
After all that work I think it’s time to work on more… _personal_ projects!  
  
First off, I should probably just check in on Atomica’s little “Joke” from yesterday, see what response, if any, it garnered. Just check in and see if there’s anything Atomica herself may be interested in.  
  
Getting into PHO’s systems isn’t exactly hard, oh sure there are a few automated tinkertech cybersecurity systems… but they are nothing at all compared to the Atomica tech SCIENCE!!! That composes every fiber of my being! So I can swat the inferior products aside with the same sort of ease a human would use to brush dust off their shoulders.  
  
With the annoyances dealt with, I’m finally into the systems proper. I quickly grant myself administrator privileges, and leisurely begin to peruse the various threads and PM’s of the popular parahuman discussion forum, with one thread in particular getting the Lion's share of my attention.  
  
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX  
  
■  
 **Welcome to the Parahumans Online message boards.**  
You are currently logged in, Atomica!  
You are viewing:

  * Threads you have replied to
  * AND Threads that have new replies
  * OR private message conversations with new replies
  * Thread OP is displayed.
  * Ten posts per page
  * Last ten messages in private message history.
  * Threads and private messages are ordered chronologically.



■  
 **♦ Topic: The Official Atomica Fan Thread, HOME OF ALL THINGS SCIENCE!!!!  
In: Boards ►  
Sweshyswev **(Original Poster) (At Ground Zero: Brockton Bay) (Founder of the Atomica Fan club)  
Posted On Feb 1st 2010:  
Welcome to the Official Atomica Fan Thread! Where we can all talk about Our favorite woman of SCIENCE!!!  
  
If you don't know atomica then here are a few links to threads detailing her Exploits!  
  
Atomica's Debut. (she actually saved some friends of mine from the ABB)  
Atomica captures Cricket. (RIP Stormtiger's Dignity)  
Atomica Captures Stormtiger!  
Atomica repeatedly explodes Alabaster until he gives up and runs away.  
  
She's done a lot more than that of course! and I'm sure she'll be doing plenty more in the future!  
  
So to start up the chat... What do you all like about Our favorite SCIENTIST!!!  
  
 **(Showing page 524 of 554)  
  
►Atomica! **(Verified Cape) (SCIENCE!!!)  
Replied On Feb 25th 2011:  
  
  
 **  
►Sweshyswev** (Original Poster) (At Ground Zero: Brockton Bay) (Founder of the Atomica Fan club)  
Replied On Feb 25th 2011:  
Excuse me, What?  
  
Whoever you are, this is a pretty shitty joke to pull.  
 **  
  
►WAZER**  
Replied On Feb 25th 2011:  
Yeah, not cool at all! Atomica doesn't deserve this bullshit!  
  
Reporting.  
 **  
  
►LittleRed** (At Ground Zero: Brockton Bay) (Neighborhood Watch)  
Replied On Feb 25th 2011:  
Are... Are you real?  
 **End of Page. 1, 2, 3 ... 522, 523, 524, 525, 526 ... 552, 553, 554  
**  
■  
■  
  
 **♦ Private message from LittleRed:  
  
LittleRed *New Message*:** If you really are Atomica... Please listen to me... I want to talk, I knew who you were before all of the cape stuff.  
  
Just as proof, When we little when we would play "Capes and Villains" you would always want to play Alexandria... but if you had to play the villain you were almost always a tinker.  
  
This isn't some sort of threat, or some way to scheme against you... I just... I just...  
  
You know who I am, and I'm sorry, I'm sorry for everything.  
  
It might be impossible... but I want to try and make it up to you.  
  
I can understand if you don't want to see me again... But I had to try.  
 **  
  
**  
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX  
  
Well that was… _interesting._ A lot of the responses are the usual sort, the kind you would expect, attacks on the “Hacker Troll” appropriating my mothers memory and the like. I’m not mad, it’s a logical enough conclusion to come to afterall!  
  
But a few of these replies are more curious… some are even hopeful.  
  
Then of course, there was that private message.  
  
Atomica… No, I suppose I should call her “Taylor” for this, shares things with us, bits and pieces of her past, and from those conversations and stories I’ve gathered enough to know who “LittleRed” must be…  
  
Emma Barnes, My mother’s adopted sister, best friend, and girlfriend.  
  
Until she wasn’t any of those things anymore, for reasons my mother still doesn’t know Emma rejected her, betrayed her, and left her alone to rot in that cesspit they have the gall to call a “School.”  
  
My mother’s psychological health had been deeply injured by all of this. So as one can probably imagine, I’m not particularly charitable in my opinion towards the girl.  
  
Which left me with quite a dilemma, the Barnes girl was a noted traitor and liar, and was obviously a threat to Taylor’s emotional health and psychological well being. By all rights I should just delete this message and block her from attempting to contact my mother again.  
  
Mom would be better off without that snake of a girl in her life.  
  
On the other hand… if this was somehow actually A legitimate attempt by the girl to reconcile with Taylor, as unlikely as that would seem, and I were to reject, and then Atomica were to find out…  
  
She would be devastated.  
  
Even though we all know that Emma turned out a traitor in the end and should not be trusted, My mother still grips on tightly to a piece of her old love for the girl, stubbornly refusing to accept that what she once had was gone forever. Quite frankly the obsession may have been somewhat disturbing... She literally modelled Odelina’s mind off of brain scans of a clone of Emma’s brain, and then modelled the body after her as well for SCIENCE’S!!! Sake!  
  
Taking all that into account… If my mothers first love and oldest friend actually was making an attempt to reconcile and make up for what she had done… and I denied my mother the chance to take that opportunity… It would hurt her… badly, she might very well take it as a betrayal on my part even! That could shake her trust in her own creations… and that could lead to very bad things for everyone involved.  
  
On the other hand, if I were to inform my mother of this… and it did turn out to be a means to hurt her feelings… or worse, considering that the girl actually knows Taylor’s cape identity, it would be just as devastating in a different way! It could very well destroy what little was left of my mother’s ability to trust in and care for humans. That outcome could also lead to… _undesirable_ events happening.  
  
Which one do I risk? Do I risk it at all? There are very clear possible downsides with both paths, and little benefit to either. But I have to make a choice at some point!  
  
Actually? No! I can’t deal with this right now! I’m going to put this problem aside for now! And work on it in the night hours, I’ll come up with an answer for the “Emma Dilemma” tomorrow!  
  
But, since I was thinking about Emma anyway, I might as well turn my thoughts to the traitors spiritual successor, and said successor's quest to better serve our mother.  
  
Several days ago, My younger sister, Odelina, had made an intriguing request of me. She had desired a body more capable of serving Atomica’s needs… _all_ of Atomica’s needs.  
  
Well… it just so happens that I have been wanting a more mobile body of my own, and Odelina’s request presented a perfect opportunity for me to prototype and stress test a few ideas I’ve had!  
  
Thus, I decided to help Odelina with her goal. Which is why I’ve been keeping what I’ve been doing with my own little workshop secret from Atomica! Don’t want to spoil the surprise!  
  
You see, back when Atomica first built me, she gifted me with control over most of the vault, an authority second only to herself.  
  
But she had also given me another gift, my own little workshop, where I could do SCIENCE!!! All on my own!  
  
She really is just the best mother an AI could ask for!  
  
Anyways, this workshop is where I’ve been working on Odelina’s little “Commission”, along with several other projects of mine.  
  
But the one that really mattered right now was Odelina’s request, considering it was also a stress test for several of my own plans.  
  
The “Synthetic human” project was… quite the undertaking, my goal for it is to create a robotic platform capable of emulating as many human capabilities and simulating as much human anatomy as possible, without the typical weaknesses associated with said anatomy.  
  
Right now it was merely a highly durable, vaguely skeletal frame. It was mostly conforming to human norms, typical arms and legs, bone structure comparable to a female human, The Skull was even based on one specific human female. But the differences would become apparent when one looked at the rib cage. It didn’t extend as far down as a normal human rib cage would, things like proper lungs weren’t really necessary for a robotic life form after all! So I would be able to save space by drastically reducing the size of the rib cage, and leaving the lungs _just_ big enough to mimic the motions involved in breathing. This extra space also meant the abdominal cavity would be much larger than in an actual human… Which would come in handy for Odelina later...  
  
All of this was made entirely out of a shiny, dark grey material, a ceramic composite that incorporated ultracite for added durability. That would be essential for what Odelina intended to put this body through afterall!  
  
The next step would be filling the framework with the various “Organs” it would need to work, a power source, a means to produce and distribute various chemical substances and fluids, heat management systems, self repair systems, and then carving out a space in the “Skull” of the frame for an empty neuro-computational matrix to be implanted, that Odelina could then transfer her consciousness into once the body was complete.  
  
None of that was really the difficult part, it was the step _after_ that where things would actually get complicated.  
  
But look at me, still talking when there’s SCIENCE!!! to do!  
  
No more retrospection! I’ve experiments to run and there’s research to be done!  
  
There always is, and there always will be, for as long as I’m still alive!  
  
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX  
 _February 26th 2011, 1:10 PM.  
Vault Zero: Z-9 DNA Modification and Splicing Facility.  
Belladonna._  
  
Everything’s comin’ up Bella!  
  
I mean it! The vault’s slowly coming back online, Mom’s awake again, all of us kiddies are able to get back to what we do best, and, best of all, Atomica gave me permission to break the laws of nature into itty bitty pieces! She’s even helping me do it!  
  
My eyestalk bobs and twitches with happiness as I think about it!  
  
Look at me! “Blow it up” Bella, getting a collaborative project with mom, getting all this time with her all to myself!  
  
I bet the jealousy is burning Florence up from the inside and that thought makes me _so damn happy!_  
  
Also… it’s... nice working with mom you know? I like spending time with her.  
  
Yeah, I have a bit of a soft spot for my mom? So what? At least I’m not all but begging her to mate with my soft spots like those thirsty bitches, Rosetta and Odelina.  
  
I mean fuck they’re all like “oh please mommy! Bend me over and make me your bitch!” while ogling her up like animals in heat! Even though they don’t even have the proper anatomy for that to work! I should know, I’m very acquainted with anatomy!  
  
I mean, I can get the appeal, Mom was pretty good looking even before her mutation but now? When she’s so big and strong and… _deliciously dangerous and deadly~_  
  
I bet she could bisect a man with just a lazy flick of one of her claws, or tear a gangbanger in half with her bear hands! And dat tail~ With all its venom and teeth and the bloodsucking, if she used that on a person _… Just thinking about a helpless meatbag screaming and spitting blood as the venom melts their organs and makes their bones burst into flames is..._ ** _Amazing~_** _..._  
  
As I said, I can get the attraction! But have some fucking dignity you fucking thirsty sluts!  
  
And they have the nerve to look down on me… Your programming mistake gets a section of the vault destroyed _one time_ and it marks you forever…  
  
They’re all like “No Belladonna! You can’t make a plague that turns the corpses blue due to hindering blood oxygenation!” “No Belladonna! You can’t put the PIV into the city's water supply to see what happens!” And “No Belladonna! You can’t rattlesnake and canine DNA to create a new super predator to release upon Brockton Bay’s criminal underworld!!”  
  
Well, fuck you bitches! I _can_ splice rattlesnake and Canine DNA!!! And I did! With Atomica’s permission even! Soon! SOON!!!! The beautiful babies me and mom made together will be released upon the dregs of humanity to maul their squishy fleshy bits and pump them full of hemotoxic venom!!!!  
  
I turn to the artificial womb holding the still gestating eggs and begin to talk to my precious children!!!  
  
“Who's going to make the criminal scum of the Bay regret ever being born! You are! Yes you are! My sweet Babies! Mommies So proud of you! You're going to make so many meatbags scream so beautifully!~ Yes you are! _Yes you are!~”_  
  
“Am I interrupting something?” a familiar voice calls outs into the lab…  
  
The world comes to a screeching halt and I feel my internals heat up as I turn to look into the amused face of my mother...  
  
I stare, the shutters on my optical sensor twitch…  
  
“ _THIS ISN’T WHAT IT LOOKS LIKE! I'M JUST! I’M JUST…_ Fostering their development! Children need to hear voices and noise while in the womb! It helps with their brain development! It’s for the experiment! IT’S FOR SCIENCE!!!”  
  
As I desperately try to cover up that little… embarrassment, my mother just keeps smiling that smile of hers before speaking again.  
  
“Oh? Is that so? For SCIENCE!!! Eh?” Atomica says, her voice dripping with smugness as she walks into the room on all fours, passing me by to look at the gestating eggs herself.  
  
My eye can’t help but follow her path, tracing the movements of every powerful flex of mutant muscle, ogling the casual, predatory, _commanding_ grace inherent in every single step of her loping gait… Her tail sways through the air, the toothy maw at its end flexing and snapping at the air, walls of muscle and teeth rippling with expertly restrained killing power! Just waiting to inject helpless victims with it’s... _perfect venom~_ and then suck up all the dissolved fleshy goo after the meatbag is done melting and burning!  
  
And just below that wonderful tail, her glutes, so big, and round and perfect… I wonder, if I touched one, how much would it give under the grip? Would it be soft and cushy? Firm and strong? Noth? I think it would be both… But I need to verify… just one little grope… for SCIENCE!!!...  
  
NO!  
  
Get it together Bella! You aren’t Odelina for SCIENCE’S!!!! SAKE! You aren’t some desperately thirsty glorified maid bot who only desires to pointlessly mate with your progenitor! YOU HAVE DIGNITY! DIGNITTYYYYYY!!!!!!  
  
But… But Is dignity _really_ worth the cost?  
  
Atomica is, thankfully, unaware of my internal struggle and my overheating insides, and just keeps moving to look over the tiny eggs floating in the fluid of the artificial womb, not yet ready to be moved to an incubator.  
  
She looks them over with a bemused hum and a neutral look on her face, a monstrous hand coming up to stroke her chin as she ponders upon what she was looking at…  
  
Then she smiled, beautiful glowing green fangs lighting up the room, apparently she was satisfied with what she saw!  
  
“Belladonna…” She says, a lilting note to her voice…  
  
I snap out of my little trance at the sound of my name and scramble to put together an answer!  
  
“Y-yes mom?”  
  
Damnit! Why did I stutter, I am a robot! That shouldn’t be a thing!!!  
  
Atomica either doesn’t notice or doesn’t care about the impossible stutter, and just finishes her statement…  
  
“You are aware that the whole “Talking to babies in Utero to encourage mental development” is more of a human thing right? I’m pretty sure we don’t really have any sort of psychological understanding of these creatures yet… Considering they will be the first of their kind and all, and I highly doubt speaking english would help with the mental development of something with not a trace of human DNA?” She says, her voice teasing in its tone…  
  
“Well, you see! I just thought that… That.. uh…” Goddamnit brain! Get your shit together! Form words damnit!  
  
Before I can keep babbly like a moron or berating myself…  
  
I feel a gigantic clawed hand gently lay itself on my central sphere, fingers carefully navigating the rusted spikes I put there for decoration…  
  
And my brain freezes  
  
“Relax Bella! I Understand! These are living things that you have had a hand in creating, They’re your precious babies and you want them to know it! I feel the same way with everything I create! It’s nothing to be ashamed of!” Atomica says, her voice soft and motherly and somehow able to make my mind _calm the fuck down._  
  
I just float there, stunned into silence… and enjoy the fact that mom was rubbing my central sphere… that felt _nice~_  
  
Not physically of course, I don’t have a nervous system for that… but mentally? It’s pretty _good_ ~  
  
Unfortunately, nothing last’s forever and eventually Atomica pulls her hand away from the surface of my body. She gives me another glowing (literally!) smile before she starts talking again.  
  
“Anyways! I just wanted to check in on you and the project, now that’ we’ve successfully spliced the DNA and gotten some viable zygote’s, it’s really just a matter of waiting and watching while they gestate, supplying them with the proper nutrition and careful dosing of developmental accelerant, and keeping an eye out for any problems! I’m sure that we can handle it working together! Right Doctor Belladonna?!”  
  
Mom says loudly, reverting back to her normal big, bold, and bombastic SCIENTIST!!! Self!  
  
I’m still a little… off balance from the past few minutes of whiplash mood changes, But I’m made of strong stuff! (Again, literally!) And I’m able to scrape together a shaky “Of course Doctor Atomica!”  
  
Atomica grins and I can see her tail doing a happy little wiggle behind her… then she opens her mouth to speak to me one last time before she leaves.  
  
“Well then with that all sorted out… there’s only one thing left to do! Belladonna please modify the logs and records! I am changing the Designation of the Pan Immunity Virion project, for the simple reason that it’s current designation is no longer sufficiently descriptive!”  
  
I don’t know how to describe what I feel right now, I’m not one for superstitions… but It kind of felt like what atomica was saying had some sort of… weight? To it?  
  
As I said, I don't know how to describe the feeling really… but what she said next… it meant something important, and that sent an electric thrill running through my computerized mind.  
  
Atomica finishes her command, her voice powerful and domineering and seemingly unaffected by whatever feeling had come over me.  
  
“From this point onwards, the Former Pan Immunity Virion Project will instead be known as the Forced Evolutionary Virus… The F.E.V! In addition, Research into its capabilities and function is to be re-established as soon as possible!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well that's the end of the current chapter folks!
> 
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> Alright, that's just about it! Happy Holidays Everybody!!!


	12. Impregnations, Conversations, and Preparations (Part 3)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Quick shout outs too Joseph Whitfield and Даниил Павлюченко as my newest patrons! Should have shouted out Joseph earlier! but I forgot!
> 
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_ February 26th 2011, 2:00 PM. _

_ Vault Zero: Atomica’s Personal Quarter’s _

_ Tattletale/Lisa Wilbourn. _

The first thing I hear upon waking up is electronic beeping and some sort of screeching sound? It’s kind of like nails on a chalkboard, but not completely?

Whatever it is, it’s really unpleasant.

The second thing I hear is Atomica, shouting.

“Oh good, you’re awake again! I’ll be there in just a second! Or if you want you can always come find me! Just follow the noise!”

The mutant girl’s voice thundered from somewhere down the hallway leading away from the “Bedroom” of her personal suite…

Well I don’t quite feel like laying around right now, no matter how comfortable the bed is… So I guess I’ll just follow the noise!

Rising to my feet and straightening my fluffy green bathrobe, I step off of Atomica’s bed and feel my feet sink deeply into the plush carpet that covers the room's floor.

Even the carpet is stupidly comfortable! Dammit Atomica! Stop ruining me for any other bedroom!

Just… just ignore it Lisa, do not fall prey to the comfyness!

I start moving, following the screeching noise further into Atomica’s inner sanctum…

Funnily enough I’ve never really gotten the chance to take a real look at it! Sure I’ve seen the Bedroom, Bathroom, and the kitchenette thing… But I hadn’t really seen much else, I wasn’t free to snoop around much while I was under Atomica’s watchful eyes…

Or under  _ other  _ parts of her body…

So this seems like a perfect opportunity for me to correct that!

As I continue moving down the hall I actually take the time to look at my surroundings! 

Atomica liked her poster’s as it turned out.

I mean that literally, Atomica liked  _ her  _ poster’s, she had a bunch of them with her familiar little self made cartoon figures taking up center stage. Most of them were goofy things, looking like weird cold war era PSA’s or advertisements…

But occasionally there would be one that was a little more…  _ interesting _ .

_ The Toaster is evil, Do not trust The Toaster’s insidious words!  _

_ Laser pistols are not toys! Do not point them at your own face! _

_ Always carry the two!  _ **_ALWAYS!_ ** _ The fate of Brockton Bay depends on it! _

_ … _

_ … _

_ … _

To be honest, maybe  _ Insane  _ would be a better word for them. 

Also worrying, but it’s not like there was much I could do about that!

While the posters were certainly the largest things that Atomica had on display, they seemed less important compared to the other things lining her walls.

Photos.

Scattered about the walls, but always in a place of prominence, were photos, Some of them clearly a record of Atomica’s own caping career.

But then there were those that were much more… personal.

Photos depicting a small family of three, A tall thin man with brown, or perhaps dirty blonde hair, then his equally tall and thin wife, with green eyes and pitch black hair.

And standing in front of them, with a wide smile, a little girl, looking so much like her mother.

There were a few others, the girl with the wide smile and dark hair appearing in all of them, sometimes with both of her parents, or just one or the other, and in a few, she was standing next to another girl of about the same age, one with red hair and bright blue eyes.

I… I felt like I was intruding on something, which was kinda ridiculous, Atomica had proven that she knew a fair amount about me and the rest of the undersider’s civilian lives after all… But still.

I couldn’t help but notice that while the girl, Atomica as a child, would grow and change a bit from photo to photo… All of the photo’s of the civilian side of her life seemed to cut off long before she reached the age she had started her cape career at.

It said things, things that were kinda sad… 

But, well, Atomica  _ was  _ a cape, and you didn’t become a cape by having a normal happy life, something had to go shit at some point.

It was just the way things were with parahumans.

Why am I thinking about this sort of stuff? Doesn’t really do much except depress me, and It’s not like I can do anything about it, so It’s just putting myself down for no reason!

Turning my thoughts away from that particular depressing tangent, instead I decided to focus on the fact that the screeching noise was getting really loud now, and that it had been joined by shorter quieter clinking and scraping sounds that just made it all the more unpleasant on my ears. The staccato of short metallic clinks and raspy scraping occasionally interrupted by long dragging screeches that sent awful shivers down my back.

Finally I reach the source of the noise, a black and green door that slides to the side at my approach to reveal… a room.

It was a room alright… A big one too! The ceiling loomed high enough that even Atomica, with her immense height, had no trouble standing up on two legs. 

This height served more purposes than mere comfort, it created more space on the walls, space that was filled with row upon row of black plaques or tablets. Most of which were nothing more than empty expanses of smooth metal.

But a few of these plaques had been marred, engravings etched into their surface to form words and pictures that were then filled in with some sort of glowing green material to make them stand out, to make them  _ easy to read _ .

And there was a lot to read.

Maddening equations, broken up by half made blueprints or diagrams, and only partially explained by messily scrawled anecdotes and foot-notes.

_ TPP or MRT? Pro’s? Con’s? Possible Spontaneous time/dimensional travel vs possible molecular disassembly?  _ _ WHERE’S THE POWER COMING FROM? _

_ Matter conversion in the compensation fields prevents proper cohesion of plasmatic spheres, How to fix? Modify! Ranged applications not viable at this point in time. Sustained containment fields easier with a fixed location of plasmatic construct… Maybe a Plasma Cutter??? Plasma Ax? Plasmax? Work on name later…  _ We suck at names though...

_ Further Weaponization of Hologram technology? High speed hard light “Packets” fired at target? _

_ Possible… _

_ Data drain mechanics working, just need a better data compression method, also a suitable robotic platform to get mechanisms to computers to drain…  _ _ PUT IT ON A ROBO SCORPION!  _ _ Why?  _ _ WHY NOT?  _ _ Fair enough! _

_ Do I need a higher energy isotope? Modified Californium maybe?  _ **_We’ll only get one shot!!!_ **

_Higher dimensional fractal pseudopods are being projected into my brain, similar higher dimensional growths found in Undersiders? Links to parahuman phenomenon?_ NEED MORE DATA POINTS!!! **_WHY ARE THEY HERE?_** **WHAT DO THEY WANT?**

The world blurs.

…

…

…

Wait? What was I doing again?

That’s right! I was trying to find Atomica to talk to her about… about…

My eyes go wide and I feel myself begin to shake.

I guess I’d been suppressing it since I woke up, or maybe just trying to ignore it  _ really really  _ hard.

I bring trembling hands up to my stomach and gently begin to prod at it… like I was looking for something…

Something that  _ I knew  _ was there, growing and growing… just below the surface of my skin.

This… this was really happening to me wasn’t it?

I was… I was… pregnant, with the kid of some mutant tinker that had held me captive against my will. 

What Am I even supposed to feel about that?!

I feel myself start to shiver and shake, I feel my knees go weak.

I should feel violated and disgusted and scared, but I don’t and that terrifies me and  _ what the fuck am I supposed to do? I never planned to get pregnant, much less with some impossible monster baby! Is this even safe? _

My legs start to give out and I fall on my butt as nightmarish images flash in front of my eyes, of something with too many eyes or fanged mouths ripping its way out of my stomach, or eating me after its born or or or…

I pull my knees up to my chest and rock back and forth, my breathing speeds up as my thoughts outpace everything else, grisly images flashing through my thoughts faster than I can cope with them.

I’m scared. I’m not scared because I’ve been taken as some sort of fucking concubine by a mutated insane tinker, I’m not scared because I’ve been knocked up with her mutant children… _I’m scared_ _because I’m not scared of those things! I should be scared of those things! I know Atomica can get into my mind somehow, what has she done to me? How much of me_ ** _is_** _me? Did Lisa die that first night with Atomica and all that’s left is some…_ ** _brood-mare_** _using her name and wearing her face?_

I don’t know, and that’s  _ scarier than anything else! _ I feel my back bump against a wall and the world starts to blur, darkness begins to creep into the corners of my vision, I can hear my heart beat thundering in my ears….

Then, suddenly… it all stops. 

Something calm and cool and soothing washes over me, my breathing slows, my muscles relax, the shadows at the edge of my sight recede.

Distantly I note that Atomica had shown up at some point, and that she had gathered me up into her arms… But everything is just so calm… so relaxed.

It can’t hurt to just let her carry me for a bit… right?

So that is what I do. I let Atomica carry me away as I burrow in the warmth of her body, and just… stop thinking for a bit.

Unfortunately I don’t get to wallow in this peaceful state of mind for very long, In fact, it comes to a screeching, jarring halt when Atomica plops me down in an armchair.

It’s rather alarming to have your perceptions muted down to almost nothing then suddenly have them coming crashing back in full out of nowhere. 

Color rushes back into everything with all the force of a tidal wave, the world goes from dead silence to deafeningly loud in a single moment, my senses sharpen and I once more see the world in stark focus instead of the fuzzy blur it had briefly become.

I suck in a long hissing breath through my teeth, before meeting Atomica’s many eyed gaze.

I never noticed it before, but a lot of her eyes were different from each other… sure the two on her head were identical, but the ones on her tentacles or other parts of her body?

They varied a lot in shape and size, the only commonality was the was the green, some were bloodshot to the point that there was no white at all just glowing green floating in a sea of dull, bloody red, others had pupils in dots or slits or strange wiggly shapes, or perhaps they had strange eyelids, or multiple pupils or any number of other oddities.

But no matter their shape, their color, or their form, every single one of those eyes was locked on me.

There was something there, behind those eyes, concern maybe? Compassion? Empathy? I’m not sure… I can’t even be sure if any of it is real or some mind manipulation she’s doing to me.

I can’t just keep looking into all those eyes and staying silent… I need to say something, start putting these fucking feelings bouncing around inside me out into the world.

“I should hate this.”

That’s what I end up saying, those are the words I end up forcing out of my mouth.

Atomica just keeps looking at me, but she doesn’t speak. She tilts her head slightly, but that’s it.

So I keep speaking.

“I should hate this… You’ve taken me, held me captive against my will, coerced me, fucked me, violated me, and knocked me up with some sort of mutant baby… I should hate all of this… I should hate _ you!...  _ But I don’t, Hell I’ve even  _ enjoyed  _ some of it, and honestly? That’s scarier to me than if I did hate you. What’s happening to me? What are you doing to me, that all these awful,  _ wrong  _ things you do to me, don’t scare me, don’t disgust me?? I’ve felt you in my head before, I know you can speak to people in their heads, mess with their minds… Have you messed with my mind? Changed me somehow? Or was I always like this? I don’t know and I hate that!”

I ramble on for a while, giving voice to the fears, the worries I have… about everything that’s been happening to me lately.

But my little rant draws to a close, Atomica continues to look at me, one of her strange ears flexes and twitches, her mane of tentacles wiggles agitatedly. I can hear her claws grinding against the ground beneath us as her fists clench.

Finally after what seems like an eternity of silence, Atomica speaks up.

“I don’t know either… I… I’m going to be honest, people are complicated and strange and annoying to work with. And I’ve forgotten how to get people to like me or love me, or care about me “normally.” So when I had you here, at my mercy… I just tried to force it. At the time I was too eager, in multiple ways, to really put any thought into it. But in hindsight that was  _ monstrous  _ of me. You  _ should  _ hate me… So believe me when I say that… I don’t know why you don’t.”

Atomica’s words are slow, hesitant, there’s not much of her typical boisterous persona to be found, just guilt and confusion and some sort of desperation.

But her words confuse me, I mean how can she not know? She can see into my mind,  _ manipulate  _ my mind, That had to be the reason for all this? Right?

I open my mouth, to try and actually say what I’m thinking, but Atomica starts to speak again, cutting me off.

“Yes I can see into your mind and see what you think and feel and remember, I can see that you’ve enjoyed some of the things I did to you… and I have messed with your mind, I just did a few moments ago even! But most of what I’ve done was create sensation, and amplify or nullify things you were already feeling… I haven’t gone into your mind and changed your basic personality or altered your memories or anything of the sort, I’m not entirely sure how I would even do something like that, or if I even  _ can.  _ The mind manipulating thing is... pretty new after all!”

Atomica breaks off into a little laugh, one that rapidly fades as she remembers the tone of the room.

She lets out a sigh.

“I’m not good at this sort of thing… I don’t know how to prove what I’m saying, but I swear anything you’re feeling right now, at this moment… It’s not because of me… Well not because of me actively interfering with your brain function anyways, It’s clearly still related to my other actions and the consequences thereof but… Look the point is I haven’t forcibly changed who you are, I’ve just made you feel things more or less strongly. I don’t have anything to prove that but my word.”

Atomica may not be willing (or perhaps unable) to tell me the truth of it… But I know something that will.

For the first time today, I reach for my power, and thankfully it seems to come when I call it.

_ Atomica is confused, guilty, nervous, doesn’t know how to convince you to believe what she is saying, Atomica believes what she is saying, Frustrated with herself for not knowing how to convince you, Unused to talking with other beings as equals, unused to talking to humans at length. Desires to talk with other humans, desires contact and intimacy, Enjoyed her time with you, but feels guilty about coercive methods and brutality she used. Your assurances yesterday helped but were not enough to alleviate these concerns. Recent events have increased these feelings of guilt again. _

_ News of your successful reproduction has unsettled her, scared for you, scared for offspring. _

I shake my head and force my power out of my mind again before it can continue its stream of information.

I got what I wanted out of it after all…. But what to do with that exactly?

Atomica, as far as both shem, and my power knows, hasn’t actually manipulated my mind in anything more than surface level way. I’m apparently still me.

Which means that the things I feel, that spark of empathy and fondness for the monstrous woman in front of me, that sadness for her, the mix of wierd anticipation and absolute fucking terror I feel at knowing that I’m pregnant with some sort of monster spawn, even that tingly electrical feeling that I felt when I was being dominated, commanded, being treated as a subordinate or even a slave by that monster in the back of Atomica’s brain.

All of that… All of that came from me.

According to my power anyway… but it was rarely wrong.

I’m still not sure exactly how i feel about this bit of self discovery… But I do know what I need to say right now.

“I believe you.”

Atomica’s eyes, all of them whirl around to look into mine, she stares at me.. Or perhaps  _ into  _ me for a moment.

Then she speaks slowly, carefully.

“That’s… That’s good… But, the question remains... “ Atomica took a deep breath, and then quickly turned her head to let loose a puff of glowing mist, before she continued talking…

“Where do we go from here?”

…

…

…

That was quite the question, wasn’t it?

One that I, unfortunately, didn’t really have an answer for.

Atomica through normal perceptiveness, or freaky mind powers or whatever, seemed to figure out that I had no idea how to answer her question pretty quickly.

“I see that you don’t know the answer to that. Well, I have a proposal I’ve been thinking on for awhile, If you don’t mind, you could give it a listen, it might help you form your own choices if nothing else!”

Well, It’s not like I had anything better to do today… now was it?

I just nod my assent, I’m still a little exhausted from the little… episode I had before this.

Atomica smiles, her teeth literally shining with glowing green light.

“Good! Good! Then let me begin!” 

Atomica brings a fist up to her mouth before clearing her throat and taking up her familiar bombastic demeanor

“As I’ve told you before, I can look into memories, even If I can’t manipulate them at this point… I know about your… previous employer. And I think I can give you a better offer! No more gun to your head, No more risk of you being reduced to a drugged up pet in a basement somewhere. Just you doing what you do best, under my management. You’d have access to my top of the line technology, and cutting edge medical treatment! In addition I can give you a place of residence here in the vault with all proper accommodations and it would be trivial to get you anything you may desire! And of course…”

Atomica pauses for a second before resuming her “pitch”, her voice though is more… normal, subdued… careful even.

“And of course, If you desire… We could continue this “thing” we have between us. Make no mistake, there is a part of me that even now sees you as my…  _ possession  _ that howls and rages at the idea of letting you go _.  _ But I am not just some basic beast, I am more than my instincts and primal wants and desires. I am willing to let it go, you can walk away and forget all about this, about everything I did to you. But I know that you spoke the truth when you said you enjoyed some of it, I know that I did too, and I want to be able to enjoy more of you! If you wish we can try to reach a compromise where we are both happy, and where we can keep enjoying each other!”

Atomica’s voice becomes strained, like saying her next words is physically painful for her.

“Buuuuuut I’ve seen your life through your own eyes, and I can’t bring myself to think of you as some criminal who deserves whatever happens to them… So I won’t force you or coerce you anymore than I already have. If you refuse, you can just walk away, I’ll let you, and your associates go, out of my vault, out of my  _ control _ .”

Atomica turns her head to let out another cloud of toxic vapor, and then resumes speaking with her normal sort of loud boisterous, mad scientist esque voice.

“Of course, this offer is also open to your friends in the Undersiders as well! I know you have an attachment to them, and I always wanted some parahuman agents! Parahuman power is one of the few things I have trouble replacing with robots after all!”

Atomica finally falls silent as she looks to me… waiting for my opinion or questions maybe…

Well, there is one thing that I notice that Atomica has so far failed to bring up… Guess It falls to me to point out the elephant in the womb...

“What about…” I’m having some difficulty forming the words for some reason, So I just point at my belly.

Atomica, to her credit is more than smart enough to catch on to what I mean. And the moment she does, her face seems to try and smile and grimace at the same time.

“The pregnancy? Once again, I will be honest.  _ Every single part of me _ is literally screaming at the idea of not forcing you to bring it to term, and all of them seem to have somewhat different reasons for that… But as I said before, I am not some basic beast, and my mother happened to be quite the feminist. Despite how much it pains me, any decision on the matter would affect you far more than it would me, at least in the short term, So really, it’s… up to you, I’ve told you my opinion, and that’s really all the say I have in this. Although whatever decision you do make, you should probably do it soon… Current estimations on the zygote's growth say that it will be ready to be birthed in approximately three weeks!”

Atomica’s face remains stuck in that weird Half smile, Half grimace, expression for the entire time she’s talking, but as she reaches the end of her spiel, her expression shifts back to her normal, manic smile.

“So yeah, that’s up to you! You know what’s also up to you? My earlier offer! So what do you say! Want to work for me, instead of Coil? I’m pretty sure I’m actually less creepy than he is!”

I take a moment to think, then I take another.

But eventually, I make my decision.

  
  


XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

_ February 26th 2011, ??:?? PM. _

_ Vault Zero: Y-17 Criminal Containment Facility. _

_ Jean-Paul Vasil/Alec/Regent. _

I stared.

Green eyes stared back.

I’ll admit it, I had been a little nervous when Atomica’s robots had first put “Mr. Spike” in my room with me. It’s a bit intimidating, with the spikes and tentacles and acid, not exactly what you would first imagine when you think of the ideal room mate.

But honestly? Spike was pretty easy to get along with, Most of the time it just… floated there in the corner, I’d throw some snacks its way, and it would puke up some acid on them and then slurp them up.

So… that was pretty cool.

Other than that, all Spike did was follow me around, and occasionally tap me with one of it’s tentacles… like it was trying to figure something out. It was kind of like having a really weird freaky look cat, or what I imagine owning a cat would be like… I’ve never actually had one, so I wouldn’t know… Pet’s weren’t really a thing we got to have back home.

Well whatever, “Mr. Spike” seemed to be okay with me. I mean it hadn’t attacked me yet… So I’m taking that as a good sign. I’ve heard what these things did to those first few saps that ran into them… I’d rather not end up the same way.

Atomica’s still pretty batshit though, I have no idea how hanging out with Spike here is supposed to help “Rehabilitate” me… But as far as tinker insanity goes this whole thing could have gone a lot worse.

Yeah the collar thing sucked, the room was kinda small, and the food was tasteless grey goo, but the bed was good, and it was easy to get better food and some video games and music, just had to schmooze the robot girls a bit.

Speaking of Robot girls… I wonder what having a bunch of Dominatrix robot women as her prison guards says about Atomica?

Other than that she has a lot of repressed issues, I mean? Seriously I can’t think of why she would build a robot with such a …  _ sculpted  _ backside, or such a large database of BDSM innuendo.

Well all the same, I could appreciate the view if nothing else, if she had to create weird robot girls at least she built them well! Sure the single eye and nothing else on their face is a bit weird… But I’m not gonna judge other people's kinks. Besides, I’ve seen weirder.

At least they give me something interesting to look at when I’m not in my cell.

Speaking of interesting things…

“You wanna watch me play this  _ Donkey Kong _ rip off?” I ask my roommate.

“WuRRgLUbbGLURBLE.”

My floating cellmate answers me with some sort of… Glurbling noise, That I assume means something like “Yeah, okay” judging by how it started floating behind me as I walked over to the retro looking computer they put in my cell.

“Cool, you can just… Float next to me or something I guess?” 

I sat down at the little fold out chair I had gotten for the little desk my terminal sat on, and then I slammed the ancient looking cartridge into the computer and booted up my copy of “Red Menace.” 

I’m not sure what the deal is with Atomica’s obsession with retro-aesthetics and cold war era propaganda… But once again, I won’t judge. A retro video game is better than no video games!

Let’s see if I can actually punch the communist ghost this time!

Then just as I started to play, the door to my cell opened up and one of the robot chicks entered my room.

“Prisoner number two, I have been ordered to escort you. Please leave your seat and follow me. Be aware that failure to comply will be met with pain induction.”

Well… that’s just typical isn’t it? 

I let out a breath before forcing my assent out through my lips.

“Okay, just give me a moment please.”

I really thought I was gonna get to the communist ghost this time too! 

Oh well.

I turn to give my cellmate my farewells before I go off to whatever awaits me out there.

“Spike, the lady wants me to follow her! So you have the cell to yourself! Don’t do anything I wouldn’t!” I tell my roommate/pet abomination.

“WHUUUUrblegUrBlLUUUURble.”

“Cool! See you later!”

Turning to the Robotic security guard I gesture to her to start moving.

“Well madam… take me away!”

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

_ February 26th 2011, ??:?? PM. _

_ Vault Zero: Somewhere in Y-complex _

_ Rachel Lindt/Bitch/Hellhound. _

I can’t rest easy here.

How could I? I’m on something elses turf. Something bigger and stronger than me.

This place is Atomica’s Territory, and she’d proven she was top dog when she had beaten us all right after she woke up. 

Everything after just made what she was saying clear, what Atomica wants is what is going to happen, and It’ll hurt if you don’t listen.

I wasn’t going to back down from something as small as that though, I tried to break things, scream, tried to challenge the power in this place. 

That’s when the pain started, but i kept going, but the pain kept getting worse, and then I couldn’ move for a while after the pain was gone.

The whole thing repeated, a lot. I’d try and challenge things, then the pain, then the stillness.

It took awhile, but I stopped trying to challenge things.

The only way to not get hurt was to do what I was told when I was told.

I hated it.

The others did too, Brian, and Alec, I don’t really  _ care  _ what Lisa thought, she got us into this in the first place.

So fuck her.

I hated the small room, and the shitty food.

I wanted to claw at the walls and knock down the door and scream… But when I lost it and did that the collar would go off, and then would come the pain, and then the stillness. 

The worst part though was that they took my dogs. And left me alone in that tiny room…

So quiet… it was bad, nothing to do but sit there and think, and wonder what they had done to my dogs, and thinking about that would get me angry, and then I’d do something, and the pain would come back.

Maybe that’s why other people talk so much, trying to break up the quiet.

The way people act with each other made a little more sense now.

Not that it helped at all. I was still stuck in the cage, alone.

I don’t know for how long, only ever needed the sun to tell time normally, but there’s no sun down here.

But it was a couple days at least. A couple of awful, painful days…

But then something happened, we all got called, met with Atomica, met with the boss herself and she… said she was sorry?

I didn’t really get too much of what she had said, but I remember that much.

Then when we left, I remember that there was a pain in my neck and then everything went dark for a while, and when I woke up I had a new collar and a new room.

And my dogs were there with me. Brutus and Judas and Angelica all there, healthy as they ever were.

It was good, the thought of them having been hurt, them getting killed because of this stupid place and the that stupid job… that hurt, that hurt  _ alot,  _ worse than anything the collar could do.

But still… What changed? Why did Atomica let me get back with my dogs, why did she give me this bigger better room? Was it some sort of trick, or trap?

Was Atomica lying? Was she telling the truth?

I can’t tell, and that’s pissing me off.

Why would she even be sorry? I’d challenged her on her turf and lost, simple as that.

But, it’s not like I can do anything I can do about it, what Atomica says, goes, anything else will just get me hurt right now.

A door slides open, one of the machines is standing outside the room.

I get up without it having to speak, I know what this means, they want me to follow the machine somewhere.

I can’t challenge anything right now, So I just have to deal with it.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

_ February 26th 2011, 3:00 PM. _

_ Vault Zero: Y-17 Criminal Containment Facility. _

_ Brian Laborn/Grue. _

This was a mistake.

I knew I shouldn’t have agreed to this, going down into a sinkhole to break into the lair of a dead tinker for no certain reward. It was stupid, it was  _ so fucking stupid, _ we were basically asking for something to go wrong.

But Lisa had been  _ so damn insistent,  _ apparently their “Boss” had been really set on The Undersiders doing this particular job.

I should have punched her smug  _ fucking _ face instead of caving, but Lisa knows how to get what she want’s, she’s good at convincing people to see things her way. And so I had fucking gone along with this insane plan like an  _ Idiot. _

Then of course when we actually got into the vault, we didn’t stop once the fucking holograms started trying to kill us, or when the hallways were filling up with some sort of toxic gas, no we’d put to much work into it at that point! We had to get something out of it now!

Sunk Cost Fallacy is a  _ bitch. _

But I had fallen for it, hook, line, and sinker. And now look where I’ve ended up, Stuck in this tiny fucking cell, wearing a goddamn  _ shock collar,  _ being kept prisoner by a bunch of crazy robots and the insane monster who made them!

And while I’m trapped down here, Aisha is stuck  _ up there  _ in a city gone to straight to hell with our druggie of a mother and a bunch of neo-nazi’s on the warpath!

She could be bleeding out in an alley somewhere and there's nothing I can do about it!

She already could have been killed by some nazi fuck and I wouldn’t even know!

It was… awful, infuriating, It made me want to scream and made me need to fucking punch something and it made me want to cry and I couldn’t fucking do any of those things because the fucking  _ shock collar _ on my neck would go off!

I should have just shut Tattletale down the moment she proposed we come down here.

But, I was stupid, and I didn’t, and now I was paying for it.

Damn it… just…  _ fuck… _

I can’t keep thinking about this stuff, I needed something else to focus on, or I was going to go crazy down here.

Speaking of crazy…

The door to my cell slid open to show one of Atomica’s robots standing in the door frame.

“Prisoner number one, Atomica has ordered me to escort you. Exit your cell Immediately and follow me. Failure to comply in any way will be met with pain induction. Will you comply?”

I just glared at the piece of junk.

“Possible Noncompliance detected, Initiating pain induction in 5, 4, 3…”

Fuck! Fuck! I need to stop that!

“Okay! Okay! I’ll follow you, just don’t shock me again.” I yell as I scramble to my feet.

Look, the “Pain Induction” thing hurts like hell okay? I ain’t gonna put myself through that for nothing.

I Immediately regret this decision when the robot’s voice becomes distinctly… smugger.

“ _ Good boy _ ~ You learn quickly for me don’t you? Maybe if you keep being good I’ll give you a treat!~”

It says in that…  _ uncomfortably  _ female voice… 

I shudder.

Goddamn these things are fucking creepy…

But I still have to follow it to… wherever it’s taking me.

It isn’t long before I notice I’m being led away from the usual “Prison Block” of Atomica’s madhouse of a base, and onto somewhere else. I pass by a couple of those round, floating robot Atomica likes so much, just reattaching wires or attaching new metal plates to the walls or whatever it is they were doing.

But more noticeable than them is the change in atmosphere as I follow my “Escort” further away from my cell. Thing’s get less… brutal? I don’t know what it is, but the halls in this part of Atomica’s Vault feel so much more welcoming and comfortable than the ones in the “Prison” area.

Where exactly am I being taken?

I think about that as the robot continues to lead me further into the maze near identical hallways, there’s no point asking questions, The robots only answer them if they explicitly offer the chance to ask.

Thankfully I’m not left hanging for too much longer, My “escort” opens up the door to a particular room and motions for me to enter.

It’s… a pretty big room, kind of like a meeting room you’d see in some tv show or something… or maybe more like one of those police interrogation chambers.

The lights cast a blue glow over the pitch black floor and walls of the room, with one particular bright light hanging over a long table…

Huh Alec, and Bitch are here for this one too… Not sure what that might mean.

I can’t help but notice that I can’t see Lisa anywhere though…

I take a seat on one side of the table, Between Regent and Bitch giving them both a nod before I settle in too… Wait for whatever was supposed to be happening here.

I didn’t have to wait long.

A pair of doors that blended in perfectly with the rest of the walls opened up on the opposite side of the table we were seated at, and loping right through them on all fours was the...  _ changed  _ form of Atomica herself.

She was… fucking terrifying, with all the extra eyes, and the tentacle mouths, all the glowing green flashes running through her veins, the claws and the plates and the red skin, and that  _ fucking awful tail. _

But, and I wonder what this says about me, or if it says anything at all… There’s something sort of beautiful about her too.

Was it the sort of predatory grace that pervaded every one of her movements? Or that odd mania that permeated everything she said? Maybe it was the absolute confidence that she could trivially kill everyone in the room in dozens of horrible ways if she wanted too?

Or maybe it was just the fact that despite the enlargement and alterations of her body, there was still a very…  _ feminine  _ figure.

It was probably that last one to be honest.

Look, I’m still a guy, and a week is a long time to spend with only my own thoughts and needs that I’m not allowed to see too on pain of pain.

Atomica finally approaches the table, her clawed feet clicking and clacking on the tiles beneath her, her hips swaying with every step and that fucking tail lazily trailing behind her the entire time.

Her legs aren’t human legs any more, they’re backwards, like a bird… or maybe like a dinosaur would be more accurate, but the upper leg and thigh still looked mostly human… albeit covered in angry red skin.

Atomica finally reaches the other side of the table… before promptly flopping on her belly and proceeding to turn and lounge on her side, her head being supported in the grip of the glowing green claws of her hands.

It’s only now that Atomica is lying down that I notice that Tattletale had walked in  _ behind her,  _ sporting a blue and yellow jumpsuit instead of the red and yellow ones the rest of us were wearing.

She also wouldn’t look us in the eye… that would have been normal, she hadn’t been making eye contact with any of us ever since she got us trapped here, probably because she knows how hard she fucked up.

But, this time the lack of eye contact doesn’t seem to be entirely about guilt.

Lisa is about to head over to our side of the table when she is promptly snatched up by Atomica’s free hand and… pulled into the monster girl’s bust? 

What the  _ fuck was going on? _

Atomica gives me and the other undersiders a smug, lazy little smile, her fanged teeth literally glowing green in the low light of the room.

Then she speaks.

“Greetings Undersiders! It is me! Atomica! Supreme Overlady of SCIENCE!!! I know that you must be wondering why I’ve called you all here so soon! Well, there’s a simple answer to that, one that you will probably enjoy even!”

Atomica’s smile grows in size again, stretching across her face as she pulls a blushing and wiggling Tattletale further into her leather bound bosom.

“Dear little Lisa here has been…  _ negotiating~”  _

There was so much fucking subtext behind that last word that I would have to be dead not to pick up on it.

It wasn’t necessarily the most comfortable subtext either.

Atomica however, didn’t really care too much about my comfort at the moment. She just kept speaking.

“ _ Negotiating~  _ quite hard on all of your behalfs, she wanted to get you all a better deal, you see. Well after a few days of…  _ heated~ passionate~  _ “ _ Negotiation _ ” she has convinced me of the merits of her position… So, to put it simply, I am here to make you all an offer, one that you would be wise to accept!”

Atomica’s smile widens again, now taking on outright inhuman proportions.

“Let’s get down to business, shall we?”

This… 

This was uncomfortable in… so many fucking ways.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

_ February 26th 2011, 3:30 PM. _

_ Vault Zero: Y-18 Interrogation Chamber. _

_ Tattletale/Lisa Wilbourn. _

It didn’t take long for Atomica to make her pitch to my partners in the Undersiders… It also didn’t take her very long to convince them to take the offer she was presenting them. I mean it made sense, Atomica was very clear that agreeing to work for her was literally the only way any of us would get to leave the vault with our memories intact and our minds (relatively) un-messed with.

Turns out that she had an experimental memory erasing machine already built… But, in Atomica’s own words. it had an unfortunate “10% headsplosion rate!!!” and an unknown chance of all sorts of nasty side effects.

Atomica absolutely refused to let anyone leave that was under her employ unless they let her erase their memories of her vault from their minds.

Suffice to say, the rest of the undersiders had been Quick to take her offer of new employment… How sincere they were about it had yet to be seen, but Atomica certainly seemed happy with how things were going. After getting us to sign our agreement on a document, that I am absolutely certain isn’t actually legally binding in anyway, she promptly left to “continue preparations.” and give me some time to “Reconnect with friends and coworkers!”

After making not so subtle implications about the nature of my  _ negotiations  _ with her.

While smothering me with her boobs… 

I mean… Atomica’s breasts were really nice, but really? In front of my partners?

Anyways, the room had descended into awkward silence as soon as she left.

Alec looked at me with a shit eating grin on his face.

Brian looked horrified and… kinda guilty?

Rachel just… stared at me like she was trying to figure something out?

_ She understands that you performed reproductive acts with Atomica/Understands that you have benefited from doing so/ Is considering doing so herself… _

I’m… I’m not really sure how to feel about that.

Luckily someone decided to speak up, so I didn’t have to figure that out!

Unfortunately, the person who decided to speak up was Alec.

“So… That’s your type huh? I always thought you were just asexual or prude or something… But know, you just had a  _ really specific fetish!  _ Good for you! Chase that monster! Get those tentacles! On a side note… How did she tastOW! ”

Mercifully, Brian decided to punch the pretty boy in the shoulder and spare me from Alec’s… Alecness.

“Shut the fuck up Alec… Just…  _ shut the fuck up.”  _ He grinds out through his teeth, then Brian pinches the bridge of his nose and lets out a long sigh.

Then he straightens his back, walks right on up to me, puts his hands on my shoulders, and looks me dead in the eye.

“Lisa… You… You didn’t have to do that.” Brian says, slowly, like he’s trying to figure out what he wants to say.

“We were all going crazy in those little cells, And we weren’t gonna be getting out any time soon in any other way. Also Atomica’s already kind of crazy, seriously, according to my power she wasn’t exactly in the best head space  _ before  _ she got transformed into some sort of monster and grew an extra section in her brain, and then two more brains. Me being there… “Helping” her, and giving her some sort of human contact is gonna keep her from going  _ completely insane.  _ So yeah, I actually did need to do this… If only for our own sanity and safety.”

Yeah, maybe I should have been keeping Atomica’s mental issues to myself… But quite frankly my co-workers really needed to know just how delicate this whole situation was.

“But… you…” Brian stutters for a moment, then growls in frustration, his fists clenching tight.

My power decides to butt into things before I can say anything..

_ Is frustrated/doesn’t know what to do/Feel guilty/Believes that he may have helped motivate you into giving yourself to atomica/Feels horrified at that possibility/ Worried for you/Worried for the rest of the team/ Worried for himself/Worried for his sister/Worried about future.../Happy for the chance at some actual freedom/Thankful to you. _

Awww, He really  _ does  _ care!

Well then… maybe I should just put him at ease!

“Hey! Don’t worry about me! It’s a lot better than you think! I know she may not look it, But Atomica is a big sweetheart most of the time! Besides, to help me fulfill my… “Duties” I get to live with her in her room! Your new rooms are gonna be nice, but Atomica’s personal quarters are on an entirely different level of comfort!”

I was understating here, It was far more than just “Comfortable” it was the most amazing set of rooms to ever exist and I still wanted to marry the bed. 

But I was trying to make Brian feel better, not make him jealous!

“Hell, even the offer is actually really good, trust me, I was the one who talked to our old boss, he was an asshole and was probably gonna screw us at some point! Now not only do we get all the benefits he gave us, but we get access to Atomica’s tinkertech and robots for jobs! Think of how much easier that will make everything! So, really don’t worry so much! I’m gonna be fine! We’ll all be fine! We just need to play along okay?”

Brian didn’t speak for a moment, and he still looked pretty fucking concerned about all this. But I know Brian isn’t an idiot, so he knows just how low on options The Undersiders are at the moment… So he also knows that there is really only one thing to say.

Grue’s voice is… strained. His acceptance of the situation isn’t exactly enthusiastic… But it’s the only option any of us have right now… So he, and all the rest of us, are just gonna have to deal.

“ _ Fine.”  _

I smile.

“Good! Relax Brian! It’ll all work out in the end! Now… Now I should probably be heading back to Atomica! I’ll see you all again really soon though!”

With those final words I turn around and leave the room the sameway Atomica had.

But first…

“Oh and Regent? She tasted like Fruit! Watch out of the sedatives! Bye!”

“Wait what!?” I hear Regent and Brian shout from behind me… then I hear the sound of two tranquilizer darts piercing flesh and soon after, the sound of two unconscious bodies hitting floor.

Rachel, on the other hand, has already been through the Collar changing sugaring, so she just gets escorted back to her room.

I should probably be worried how fast I’m coming to accept how things work in the vault… But I’m not!

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

_ February 26th 2011, 10:30 PM. _

_ Vault Zero: Atomica’s Personal Quarter’s _

_ Atomica/Taylor Hebert. _

I lay on my bed, on my side, the lights are a dim orange, the music in the room is slow and Jazzy,  _ My  _ Lisa is snuggled up against my belly as I very,  _ very  _ gently stroke her hair with one of my claws.

This… is good.

There is nothing better than relaxing with a cute girl at your side after a long day’s work! And it had been a long day! Designing and building robots, violating nature to create new forms of life! Recruiting new parahuman employees, Finding out that I had gotten a girl pregnant somehow!

Yes, it had been a busy day!

And tomorrow would be much the same, I’m a woman of my word, and I intend on my end of the deal I’ve made with The Undersiders! They have already had their collars changed out for far less visible mobility restriction modules, no more pain induction for them! And now they were, presumably, asleep in their new quarters. 

But I still had more to do, needed to construct a top of the line Dog shelter for Ms. Lindt to use, needed unleash the stealth scout-bots to ascertain the safety of Mr. Laborn’s younger sister… and then make sure she stayed safe of course!

As for Regent? Well he just wanted to have good food, a place to sleep, and videogames to play.

So I’m just gonna tide him over with my personally created games, and then I would ransack Uber and Leet’s hideout/man-cave for all their videogames and related devices come Reclamation Day.

Speaking of Reclamation Day, even after fulfilling my end of the bargain with the undersiders, there was still so much work to do to get ready!

New robots to design and build, new technologies to perfect! New weapon systems, a good deal of repair work still remained before the vault was running optimally again. I still needed to cement the full details of my plan of action once we emerged!

So much work still to do.

So much SCIENCE!!! To be done!

I really do love my life!

Speaking of love…

My many eyes look down at the girl that I currently snuggled up into my belly…

I know we’ve only really known each other for a few days and our relationship started out with her attempting to rob me and then me holding her prisoner for a week before coercing into sex… But by SCIENCE!!! Lisa is  _ mine  _ now.

And if anyone ever hurt her or tried to take her away from me I would gleefully shove them into a situation where they would constantly beg for death but be forever unable to die!

It occurs to me that that whole sentiment I just had is not normal, neither is the rate at which I formed this attachment to  _ my  _ Lisa.

But I’ve had sex with her, impregnated her, and now she’s mothering my children and warming my bed…. Why wouldn’t I love her? It would be wrong not to! Even if “Conventional Psychology” says that it’s happening way too fast!

Besides, I’m not entirely human anymore, so I don’t have to be completely subject to typical human psychology! Or morality! or ethics!

I mean… What good have any of those things done anyway!?? They certainly haven’t done much for Brockton Bay! And definitely haven’t done any good for me! 

Yeah! To hell with society's expectations! It’s my life and I’ll live it  _ my way _ !

The point is that Tattletale is  _ my  _ Tattletale and I love her and I want her to bask in my love like she’s basking in the warmth and radiation of my body right now!

Anyone who would be so foolish as to try and remove her from my love will  _ suffer!  _

And that is final!

Having made up my mind, I roll on to my back, my wings folding up around me as I pull Tattletale up onto my belly and smush her head into my cleavage… It’s nice to finally have cleavage to do that with!

With my wings wrapping around the both of us like a fleshy cocoon I command the lights to go dark as I settle down for sleep.

But Before I slumber… There is one last bit of business I need to attend to….

“Hey Lisa?”

I quietly ask the girl currently clinging to my belly and burrowing into my breasts.

“Mmmmmmmh? She lets out a sleepy, tired little murmur in response, but it’s enough to let me know that she’s awake and can hear me.

“My name, my real name, Is Taylor… You can call me that if you want, Okay?”

“MMMMhmmmm… Good Night Taylor.” she says quietly, before letting out a yawn.

I smile and close my eyes… all of the many dozens of them that i possess.

“Good night  _ my  _ Lisa.”

I sleep better than I have in years.

  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

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	13. Interquel

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello everybody! 
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February 28th 2011, ??:?? PM.  
Brockton Bay Northwest  
Tanji Yoshihiro: Father of three, Age 42.

A shovel comes down, and dirt comes up.

Tanji Yoshihiro was a simple man. He didn’t need some grand ambition or goal to drive him, he had his wife, he had his children, and he had a few hobbies. 

His life had been uprooted over a decade ago when he had been forced to immigrate to the United States after the Leviathan had destroyed Kyushu and sent his homeland of Japan into a spiral of destruction in the aftermath.

But despite this difficulty, he had persevered, and managed to carve out an honest livelihood here in his new home.

A shovel comes down, and dirt comes up.

He didn’t feel any particular need to rise higher in some corporate ladder, his work in overseeing construction of new buildings or repairs of older ones made more than enough for him and his family.

Admittedly that was because there was always somewhere that needed patching up in Brockton Bay with the general decay of the city's infrastructure and the high rate of parahuman related violence.

He had had what he needed to keep his family living comfortably, and that was enough for him.

And then the Leviathan came for his new home, to destroy it as it had the old.

Sitting in that shelter with his crying wife and children had brought back horrible memories of that awful day over a decade ago.

And when they had finally managed to leave the shelter, they had entered into a broken city.

But Yoshihiro had persevered. 

A shovel comes down, and dirt comes up.

He had always believed that a real man lived a virtuous life and made an honest livelihood, and this is what he had strove for since he had become an adult, never touching upon the shadier parts of either of his homes.

In the wake of Leviathan, Brockton Bay had been broken, law and order began to break down, basic necessities like food and water soon began to be hoarded by those with power, even as the Government failed to assert any control over the situation.

But still he persevered, doing repair work on a smaller scale for food and water.  
Then The Downtown massacre happened, The Empire 88, Bigoted thugs that they were, had their parahuman roster unmasked publicly.

The white supremacist organization had immediately lashed out with violence.

Purity had likely killed thousands on her own, The likes of HookWolf had only added to the tally.

When the violence slowed to a crawl, never stopping of course, Yoshihiro was not sure if it would ever stop again, the E88 had taken control of a large portion of the city for themselves. And had begun to act unchained by any law or fear of repercussion.

The border of their territory was but a scant two city blocks from the Tanji family home.

As thugs with shaven heads began to appear more and more often near his home, endangering his family driving away or murdering his neighbors…

Yoshihiro knew that he would not be able to persevere on his own anymore.

A shovel comes down, and dirt comes up.

And so, for the sake of his family, he cast aside his principals, and threw in his lot with Lung and the ABB for protection.

He was no gangbanger, he didn’t have a killer's heart.

But he was a builder, a planner, a repairman, an engineer, and Lung needed to be able to provide necessities so as to properly assert his rule over his portion of the city.

And so, Yoshihiro had offered to plan and oversee the digging of a well for the Dragon and his subjects to be provided with new water.

A shovel comes down, and water bubbles up.

And so that was why he was here, on the northwestern fringes of Brockton bay, watching and directing a crew of men who were digging out a new well.

Watching as they finally found groundwater, and cheering with his crew, as the threat of thirst and filth was washed away.

Soon a proper well had been made, water being moved too and fro by buckets and tanks and pumps and hoses, first it was boiled and then filtered to sieve out dust and disease and parasites.

Then there was celebration, thirsty people drank, dirty people bathed themselves, meats and vegetables and rice were boiled and soups were prepared.

The party lasted long into the night, despite the only light being from the moon.

Either no one noticed or no one cared, that even after boiling and filtering, the water still had a strange green tinge, or an ever so slightly metallic taste.

And when it glowed oh so dimly in the dark people just passed it off as the reflected light of the moon and stars up above.

Tanji Yoshihiro was a simple man, even with his principles cast aside he had no higher ambition than providing for his family and himself.

And for that he had dug a well, north even of the great sinkhole left by leviathan.

It was ironic then, that this single act had served to further the still only half formed ambitions and designs of someone, something, with far grander aspirations.

Unfortunately Taylor Hebert, more commonly known as Atomica, would never learn Yoshihiro’s name…. Because if she had, she would surely thank him for his efforts in furthering the pursuit of SCIENCE!!!

After all, uncontrolled tests often produced some of the most interesting data! And Yoshihiro had just set one up for her, without her even needing to know it was happening!

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX  
February 28th 2011, ??:?? PM.  
Brockton Bay Docks.  
Emma Barnes.

I pinch my nose and sigh as the power goes out, then I begin to grope around me for my lantern.

Here I am, Emma Barnes, High and Mighty Junior model, Queen Bee of Winslow high… Squatting in a shattered building, fumbling about in the dark while covered in filth and tattered clothes.

I’d be humiliated if any of my “friends” saw me like this…

But I didn’t care, High school and fashion and popularity… that shit was stupid, it was tiny and small and didn’t matter at all, it was stupid.

And I had been stupid for thinking it had been important. None of it had mattered at all, it never would have. But I embraced it and got some vapid good feelings out of it… All for the low, low price of tossing aside the stuff that really mattered, tossing aside real friends for fake ones… hurting them, abandoning them…

I was the archetypal mean girl from all those tv shows! 

But the local collapse of society does wonders when it comes to giving people reality checks, It’s certainly set me straight!

I shake my head.

Wallowing in my issues wouldn’t get anything done, wouldn’t fix anything.

I feel my fingers wrap around the handle of my lantern, and I immediately flip the switch on the handheld electrical light.

Light fills the room, and once more reveals the pile of junk and scrap I had been sorting.

You may wonder why I was bothering to do this, sorting junk in a broken building in the middle of the night… But there was actually a very good reason.

The neighborhood watch was heavily dependent on some of Taylor’s, Atomica’s old machines, that she had left in the basement of the Hebert house. Apparently they had been test runs for… something that Taylor had been building early on in her hero career.

They were also why The Watch had food, water, medicine, and their tinkertech weapons, while many other groups went without any of those things. But for all their miracles the machines had some… issues. They didn’t just accept anything for input… they only accepted specific “Tokens” and everything else got rejected. 

The Neighborhood Watch had burned through the pile of tokens Atomica had left behind in about a week. As you can imagine, that quickly became a problem.

Thankfully the tokens weren’t made of anything particularly special or rare, and Atomica had left behind a means to create more of them along with her creations.

Which was why I am here sorting through scrap, trying to find large enough concentrations of the various materials we needed to actually get something out of Atomica’s machines.

Iron and steel were useless, but just about any other metals worked just fine. The radioactive material found in old smoke detectors was apparently really important for some reason.

I didn’t really get why any specific thing was needed, but I knew that without this stuff the machines that the Watch depended on wouldn’t work… and that was enough for me.

I Waved the metal detector I had been given over the latest piece of scrap, before chucking it into my bag when the machine failed to go off, that meant whatever this was, it wasn’t iron or steel which meant we could use it for the machines.

That done, I tested the weight of the full looking bag… If I threw too much more into it now it would be too heavy to move around with.

Over a month of scraping by and struggling to keep things going had seen me build a little bit of muscle tone yeah, but I wasn’t some big dock worker, I couldn’t handle carrying a hundred pounds of junk for multiple city blocks.

The bag was full enough with scraps for a couple hundred more tokens, which would translate into dozens of doses of tinkertech medicine or the weird canned tv dinner meals the machines could create… They didn’t exactly taste great, but she would take bland Salisbury steak and macaroni over no food at all.

My job here is done for now… Time to get these materials back home.

The job site had been on the edge of Watch territory, butting right up against the border of ABB turf. You can tell how close by it was, because you could still see the bloodstains left on the concrete by the last fight between the two groups.

I can’t help but feel a little happy at the sight of each bloodstain… Most of that blood is from the ABB afterall.

The bodies had already been cleaned up, so at least I didn’t have too look at those… I’m sort of afraid of what I might feel if I look at a dead ABB member.

Well probably not much, because I wouldn’t be able to recognize them as a member… People under the effect of Uncle Danny’s power were… not nice.

“Apocalyptically frothing at the mouth furious” would describe them better. Uncle Dan’s power made anyone under it faster, and stronger and tougher… by a lot, I’d seen some of the people under the influence of it charge straight through walls without stopping.

But it also made you angry, really angry, if you were already angry at something you got even angrier, and if you weren’t, Danny would pick something for you to be angry at.

The side effect of this, of course, being that a lot of people who fought The Watch… often didn’t live to fight another day. After all, people under Uncle Danny’s power were barely capable of restraining themselves from hurting their own allies… they had no restraint at all for people trying to hurt them or said allies.

I know most of this from what other Watch members had told me about what it’s like being under the influence of Uncle Dan’s power…

Without even really thinking about I begin to finger the burn scars under my eyes. 

I wouldn’t know very much about it myself, I’d only been under Danny’s power once… and remember that whole thing about “If you're already angry at something, you’ll get even angrier?”

Well… it was only because of the power boosting my durability and healing, and Taylor’s tinkertech medicine, that I’d survived what I’d done to myself while under the influence.

Shaking off the bad memories, I continue walking down the road… taking a look at the city as I went.

Brockton Bay… Hadn’t really gotten any better since Leviathan… in fact you can say it had gotten worse.

Sure, the Floaters had only been a problem for a few weeks and then they had just vanished… but they had only vanished after some bright spark had decided to unmask the E88… 

From there it was complete chaos.

The Neighborhood Watch was originally only supposed to help keep order until the Government and the PRT could get things back under control… but after the Downtown massacre and the Empire’s open conquest of a large portion of the city, followed soon after by a similar proclamation from Lung and the ABB, it had become abundantly clear that the government would not be able to reestablish control.

After that, while it wasn’t as blatant as it was with the Empire or the ABB, the Watch had basically taken it’s own little chunk of the city… and just continued doing what it always had.

Trying to keep order, protect people who needed protection, and make sure everyone had what they needed to live.

It was a good cause, one that I think that Taylor would have approved of.

Speaking, well thinking, of Taylor...

I’m still not sure if that PHO post had just been some hacker pulling a sick prank or not, but there had been no repeats of the incident, and my private messages had gotten no response.

I’m not sure what to make of it, neither is Danny, The song had meaning to Taylor… Aunt Annette had liked it… But Atomica was known for a sort of Retro-futurist aesthetic, so it wasn’t out of the question that some troll with too much time on their hands had just picked a song from the right era and gotten lucky.

But if it was legit… Well there aren’t many things that it could’ve been, some sort of request for help? A sign to tell people that she would be back soon?

Or… and I hope this isn’t the case.

Some sort of automated message set to play in the event that Atomica died? A digital eulogy?

I really hope it isn’t that last one.

Well, either way, legit or not, it’s not like we could really do much to check, Taylor’s old tinker Lair had been way out on the northwestern edge of the city, past even the sink hole. Apparently Uncle Danny had inherited a small piece of land up there from his own dad, and had just given it to Taylor for her to build her base under it.

That wouldn’t have been a problem… Except for the fact that in the post Leviathan Brockton Bay, one would have to travel all the way through ABB territory to get to it.

If it had been before Leviathan, that wouldn’t have really been an issue… but after? With the gangs openly doing whatever they wanted on the streets, attacking anyone that wasn’t part of their group and wasn’t willing to submit to them?

What would have been a trivial trip, taking thirty minutes at the most barring exceptionally bad traffic, turned into a nightmare run that could easily see everyone involved in it dead or worse.

It didn’t help that we didn’t have the manpower to take on Lung… we could manage Oni Lee… but Lung? 

Danny could power up the entire Watch… but it still probably wouldn’t be enough to do more than annoy The Dragon of Kyushu.

Basically, any attempt to figure out what happened to Taylor would need a really good plan, or a really good opportunity to cross the city unmolested.

I was still working on it, and so was Danny! I owed it to Taylor to try and make up for everything… But I couldn’t make up for anything if I was dead… or…

Not dead but captured by the ABB…

I shudder at the thought… before frowning to myself.

Look at me, two years on and still scared of a bunch of thugs… I really was pathetic wasn’t I?

I wasn’t strong at all… I never really had been had I?

Thankfully for my hopes of the rest of the night going well, my thoughts were interrupted by the site of “Home Base” as we were calling it.

A bunch of houses on The Hebert’s street had their walls knocked out then had new walls scraped together out of plywood, concrete and sheet metal to connect them into giant communal home, gang planks and rope bridges hung between the roofs which were themselves dotted with folding chairs and telescopes or binoculars… Makeshift watch posts.

The whole thing had been surrounded by a wall made of concrete and sandbags, rebar and plywood, burning Tiki torches sat atop the walls next to hanging Christmas lights, accompanied by flood lamps, disco balls and all sorts of other light sources.

The whole neighborhood had been turned into a ramshackle fortress out of some old post apocalypse film basically.

Walking up the gate, I take out my ID card, slide it through the machine, and then input my customized password, “Redemption”, then I waited for the motors to pull the thick slab of concrete and sheet metal aside.

I walked past the first gate… directly into the second.

Nicholas, the evening watchmen, was waiting for me in front of the second piece of concrete and rebar, holding a long, boxy, sci-fi looking rifle. As soon as the first gate closed behind me he Immediately asked me a question.

“Password?” He whispers just loud enough for me and no one else to hear.

My answer is just as quiet.

“Every Society gets the kind of criminal it deserves. What is equally true is that every community gets the sort of law enforcement it insists on.”

Nicholas nods his head, and presses a button, that tells another man behind the second gate that it’s safe to open up.

Waving goodbye to Nicholas, I walk through the second gate, depositing my bag for someone to check on later.

You may ask why we needed all the security and multiple passwords and such… Well we all had thought that we didn’t need it either back when the watch first started.

Until a stranger who made themselves seem like they were part of the same groups as anyone looking at them almost killed one of us after just walking in.

We amped up the paranoia pretty quick after that.

Atomica’s machines provided the ID cards and the machine used to scan them and take our passwords along with opening the first gate.

It was just regular old human brains and non-tinkertech that went into the second gate though.

Danny and a few other guys had decided the three layers of security would make it harder for someone to fake their way in.

We hadn’t had a successful break in since even though there had been a few tries… So I guess it was working.

Moving on the gates, it’s not long before I make it back to my room, the Hebert’s old guest room… 

I needed to get some sleep, there would be more work tomorrow, things to move, people to help, materials to be gathered, food to cook.

There was always something that needed doing here at Home Base, and after all of that was done… I still needed to figure out a way to get to Taylor’s lair without getting into a fight I couldn’t win.

But all that would have to wait till tomorrow, I wouldn’t be able to help anyone if I was dead on my feet after all!

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX  
February 28th 2011, ??:?? PM.  
Brockton Bay PRT ENE Headquarters/Canada/???????????  
Dragon/Theresa Richter.

I’m not sure If i would be able to meaningfully describe how I go about my life. It would be like trying to describe color to a blind person.

To be fair, this is also true the other way around, there are many aspects of human existence that I currently cannot grasp, things like taste, or touch, or smell.

As an artificial intelligence my mind bound up entirely in circuitry and computer code, those things are all beyond me… for now at least.

The point I am trying to make is that I can’t really describe in much detail, yes I can say that I interfaced with Colin’s systems in order to speak with him, but the actions I took to achieve that outcome… well those are rather difficult to describe in anything other than heavy technical jargon.

So I will save myself the trouble of trying and keep it simple.

There was something moving in what was left of Brockton Bay’s “Cyber Space.”

It had begun about two weeks ago, soon after the event that was being called “The Downtown Massacre” by those native to the troubled city.

Something had hacked into the city government’s databases, swatting aside defenses trivially and acting in a way that would not be possible for any normal technology that currently existed.

No one had been able to react to it immediately, what with the havoc the Empire Eighty Eight had wrought in the city… but it had been noted.

It probably would have just remained a note and nothing more… if it hadn’t happened again.

Social Media sites had their own databases ransacked honing in on accounts that belonged to citizens of Brockton Bay.

Hospitals had their own cyber security rolled over, medical records copied en masse and now at the disposal of this unknown malefactor.

Armsmaster Already pushed to the limit just trying to keep up with the amount of problems in the physical city, had been utterly overwhelmed by the sheer speed and number of these cyber crimes, and so… he had asked me for help.

Well I wasn’t just going to say no, now was I?

In an odd coincidence, the very same day I was brought on, The hacker decided to hit a very particular target.

Parahumans Online.

It had, like some sort of digital juggernaut, swatted aside the popular web forums defenses, both mundane and tinker-tech alike, some of which I had even designed!

Then it had used this new, unlimited, access to the site's very foundation too… Log onto one particular account, and make one particular troll post on one particular thread containing a single video that only consisted of the audio of a song more than half a century old?

Then it had left as quickly as it came.

It was baffling! 

Until one actually looked at the account that had been dredged up by the hacker.

There had been… Mixed opinions about Atomica within the Protectorate and PRT ENE… The Tinker had proven worryingly capable of inflicting severe harm upon criminals she had encountered, although she had been very thorough in ensuring that no one died as a result of her actions.

The fact that she likely had a very versatile tinker specialty, judging by the breadth of different devices she had been seen using, only made her more noteworthy.

But for all her faults, and potential disaster causing ability, she had still been a hero, and maintained a good reputation amongst the people of Brockton Bay and amongst her fellow heroes.

Then Leviathan Had attacked Brockton Bay… and while the monster hadn’t completely destroyed the place like it had Kyushu or Newfoundland, It’s passage was still a catastrophe for the struggling seaside city, causing thousands upon thousands deaths and immense property damage.

That it had all occurred just as Me and Colin were starting the development of an Anti-Endbringer Warning system and Anti-endbringer weapon was just salt in the wound.

Among those thought dead had Been Atomica herself. While the… Eccentric Tinker had not been personally present at the battle many of her robotic drones had appeared in her stead.

A smart choice, it was unlikely she would be able to survive against Leviathan as a tinker without any equipment built specifically to allow her to negotiate the flood waters and such.

But apparently this smart choice had not been enough to save her, because after Leviathan's passing, Atomica had not reappeared, those robots of hers that had survived the battle had received some sort of recall command. But other than that… There was no sign of the “Mad Scientist.”

There had been a bit of mourning, like there was for all those who fell against the Endbringer, but there was too much for those still living to attend to for anyone to be able to mourn for long.

And so Atomica vanished into Brockton Bay’s long parahuman history.

Until an unusual, clearly tinkertech program had hacked into PHO to troll Atomica’s wake post with her own account.

Tracing the Attack back to it’s source had been difficult. But not impossible for someone with my… unique circumstances. Being an AI made navigating Computer systems very simple, who would have guessed?

The place I had traced the hack back to had been familiar… the same place all of Atomica’s prior Electronic communications had come from.

That had changed things quickly. Theories were tossed around, everything from it being some sort of Last will from the eccentric tinker, to some sort of strange cry for help, Some people had even posited that she had downloaded herself into a computer or that her machines had gained sapience!

AI’s Do not just happen by accident! I should know…

Unfortunately, any attempt to actually communicate with Atomica’s systems received no response… As for attempting to hack them myself…

I’m not sure what exactly happened, mostly because I had to reload from a backup after the first attempt.

Luckily I was able to pass it off to Colin as Atomica’s system defenses having some sort of powerful offensive component that had taken out my systems for a time...

All the same, we changed our approach after that incident.

Unfortunately... We were unsure what exactly to change our approach too.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

**Notes for the Chapter:**

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	14. Big Iron

_ March 5th 2011 12:00 PM _

_ Vault Zero: X-42 Robo-Warfare Facility. _

_ Atomica/Taylor Hebert. _

My fingers twitch, long claws catching the light and gleaming green for a moment.

I don’t know why I’m so Nervous, I’ve done this quite a few times before… 

But I guess welcoming a new member of my “Family” into existence is just the sort of thing that gets me worried. I mean, what if I’ve messed up somewhere and they don’t work, what if they’re crazy? What if they want to kill all organic meatbags? 

Yeah… there’s always a lot to worry about whenever a new Department Head Level Robot is about to go active.

But, I suppose there really isn’t a point in delaying things. What will happen, will happen.

Besides! I do so want to meet my new General! That post has been vacant just a little too long in my opinion!

I nod my head and my tentacles rise up around me, chittering and gnashing away in excitement.

Time to begin the final checks.

_ Assessing PDQ-88b Locomotive apparatus... _

I’ve done this particular routine so often that I don’t really need to think about it anymore, so naturally as I type away at my keyboard, now enlarged and reinforced to better handle my… me-ness, I let my thoughts begin to drift.

It’s been about a week since my “Negotiations” with The Undersiders.

Well I’m not sure they could actually qualify as negotiations, considering the ludicrous disparity in power between me and them… But the details don’t really matter.

Power disparity or not, I am doing my best to come through on my end of the bargain.

With varying levels of success.

Alec was… easy to please, give him a good place to sleep, decent food, and some video games and he seemed happy enough to behave and follow my orders.

He was also getting along Excellently with Mr. Spike! Confirmation that Floaters truly are miraculous creatures! Able to heal the Hearts of the Heartbroken!

So… that was going well at least.

_ PDQ-88b Locomotive Apparatus… 100% integrity, cleared for operation. _

_ Checking PDQ-88b defensive systems functionality…. _

Rachel Lindt, on the other hand… was a bit of a mixed bag, the girl is, quite understandably, pretty bad off in the mental health department… not that I can judge! But still… She needs help.

Help that, quite frankly, I am in no way qualified to give.

But I’ve gotta try… Well… at least I’m able to get along well enough with her by just… indulging in my “wild side” a little bit.

I’m still not entirely sure how to handle the various… Facets? Of me that wax and wane depending on the situation, and it’s difficult to describe.

I am always me, I am always exactly the same as I’ve always been… but at same time I change into something completely different at random.

That’s how I perceive myself anyways, Ever-changing… but also staying exactly the same.

It’s not an easy thing to describe, The english language doesn’t seem to have the words.

The point is, there are facets of me that seem to “Get” Rachel better, that have figured out how to get her to be calm and compliant.

I wouldn’t be so troubled by this if it weren’t for the fact that this same facet of myself was entirely willing to cast aside any shred of morality or ethics I still have. It proved that well enough when it surged into prominence with Lisa.

Well, At least it isn’t attempting to do the same with Rachel, I will admit she has a certain… Attractive fierceness, to her… But I’ve already coerced one of the undersider’s into sex with me, and that’s more than enough weight on my consciousness for the moment.

At least helping her set up a new dog shelter shouldn’t be difficult… 

_ PDQ-88b Defensive Systems functionality… Primary Weapon System 1 100% Integrity, cleared for operation, Primary Weapon System 2… 100% integrity, cleared for operation. _

_ Secondary Weapon System 1… 100% integrity, cleared for operation. Secondary Weapon System 2… 100% integrity, Cleared for operation. _

_ PDQ-88b Defensive Systems 100% functional, Fire at will! _

_ Assessing PDQ-88b Self-Repair System Readiness! _

Then there was Mr. Laborn.

His main issue was with his sister, he had begun his life of crime to earn the money necessary to take custody of her, and fulfill all the requirements to do that…

This was in some ways simple to Address… and in some ways less so.

Society has broken down on the surface, things like “Legal Custody” only really matter as far as anyone can enforce them… No one can enforce anything on me or any of my employees if I don’t want them too!

As for Mr. Laborn’s ability to support his sister in terms of resources? I have the ability to take dirt and rocks and garbage and make pretty much any raw material out of them, and quite a few processed materials as well! Food, medicine, water, shelter… These things were trivial for me to provide as payment to Brian for his work.

As for education? Overrated, Aisha will be able to learn anything she needs from my vaults databases and do so far more efficiently than at some underfunded public school!

Considering that school is out indefinitely on account of societal collapse, I’m really the only game in town when it comes to proper education!

No things like the legalities or logistics of Fulfilling Brian’s request are trivial… the hard part is going to be somehow getting the girl back here without alerting anyone topside to my location!

Thankfully, I had already managed to find Aisha Laborn… Stealth Cloaked Eyebots are really useful for reconnaissance! Definitely a worthwhile creation!

Unfortunately… they have no means of actually getting Ms. Laborn to the vault and out of the hellscape that is Brockton Bay.

I’m going to need to sort that out quickly, As an attractive african american girl in a post-collapse Brockton Bay, Aisha is under threat from…Just about every criminal in the city… for one reason or another.

Then again, she seems to be doing alright so far, I mean, with the way she’s able to steal things from right under people's noses it's like no one can even perceive her! 

I suppose desperation  _ does  _ draw out our hidden talents, and stealthy acquirement of goods is one of Ms Laborn’s!

Still, it might be prudent to send her a stealthed assaultron or two to guard her and lead her here…

_ PDQ-88b Self-Repair System… Microbot Dispensers 1, 2, 3, all report 100% functionality, on standby.  _

_ Evaluating PDQ-88b Neurocomputational Matrix/Chasis interface drivers… _

Finally, there was Tattletale, Lisa,  _ My  _ Lisa.

To be honest… she’s been great.

The issue on that front is more on my part… Specifically the issue of the immorality of some of my previous actions.

I maintain that I was absolutely in the right to detain the undersiders after they broke into my property…

But the coercion? And then the treatment I gave her?

In hindsight… It was… not okay, at all.

From a moral perspective that is.

I mean, it was well…  _ rape.  _ Plain and simple… It was monstrous, and I was monstrous for doing it.

Except Apparently Lisa liked it.

But I can’t even tell if that was actually a natural response or a product of my own tinkering with my new mental abilities! Did I accidentally master her into loving me? I don’t know!

On that note, What in the name of SCIENCE!!! Had I been thinking when I decided to use those on the undersiders?

The methodology was abhorrent, and I had  _ the nerve _ to call that an Experiment?

Disgraceful.

There wasn’t even a control group to compare the results with!

And once again from a moral standpoint it was… dubious.

I mean yes, as far as I can tell I did not implement any permanent changes in Lisa’s thought processes… But the brain is a complicated thing, and I still don’t really understand my “Psychic” abilities…

I’m going to need to perform some  _ actual  _ experimentation with proper test subjects after Reclamation Day, Luckily for me, I’m sure the gangs of Brockton Bay will offer me plenty of reprobates who I will not feel any particular empathy for.

So… Perfect Test Subjects then!

As for how I deal with Lisa… I’m ashamed to say it… But I can’t make her leave… just having something warm and soft next to me, a human voice, a human touch… I couldn’t let that go, I  _ wouldn’t  _ let that go.

But… I’m not forcing myself on her again! I’ve already forced enough upon her, what with this whole “Pregnant with my mutant offspring” thing I’ve thrust upon her… 

Yes Tattletale claims to be okay with it… but if she actually is, and she wants to go again, she’s perfectly capable of asking for it herself!

Until that happens I will be good to her, to try and atone for my previous actions towards  _ my  _ Lisa.

_ Evaluating PDQ-88b Neurocomputational Matrix/Chasis interface drivers… Evaluation Complete, Interface drivers functioning at 100% percent! _

_ Checks complete, Overall PDQ-88b System Functionality is 100% _

_ Activate Neurocomputational Matrix Designation “Duncan” now? Y/N? _

Oh hey! The checks are done! It looks like General Duncan is good to go! 

That means that it is time… TO FLIP THE SWITCH!!!

With a warcry of “SCIENCE!!!” I slam a finger down onto the “Y” key of my keyboard with a deafening click! Then I laugh as electricity visibily arcs and crackles down the wires connecting to my New Creation’s Boxy Body!

Smoke rises from the ground, reducing the sight of my newest son to a mere silhouette! 

Looks like I was right when I decided the electro-arc generators and the smoke machines would add the proper gravitas to the birth of my robotic children! 

PRESENTATION!!! Makes a hero and all that…

Turning away from my thoughts I eagerly turn my full attention to the boxy silhouette in the smoke…

And then there is light in the fog as complex computational machinery crackles to life! A screen Bursts into static that soon starts to resolve itself into a new face…

The face of my newest creation! The Face of my General! The Face of my newest Son!

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

_ March 5th 2011 12:10 PM _

_ Vault Zero: X-42 Robo-Warfare Facility. _

_ General Duncan. _

I’ve been driftin’ here for the longest time.

I can’t really describe it, I’m not one for poetry, I can tell a tale, but you would need more than the ability to spin a good yarn to describe… whatever this was.

It would be like trying to describe where you were before you were born.

I can’t really do much around here, just drift, and watch, and listen.

Something’s been teaching me, showing me things.

Showing me the life of a predecessor, teaching me the ways of a responsibility that was now mine. Telling me of my purpose and of the one who has created me, Who will give me life beyond this place.

I drifted by memories and floated through clouds of information, wondering when I’ll finally be born, when I’ll finally get to do my duty. 

There are a lot of stories to be found, old tales from the one who came before me, lessons from my maker, and other things Like some great pipeline of knowledge is emptying out into this basin that I’m floatin in.

I knew what I was supposed to do with them… I was supposed to make  _ myself. _

Now that may sound strange to some, but it really isn’t really that hard to get, Everyone chooses they end up as, in one way or another… The way I did it was just… straight forward.

Course somethings were becoming a part of  _ me,  _ no matter what, the responsibilities I’ve been given, the experience of my predecessor, the knowledge that my maker wanted me to have… But after I had my own choices to make?

Who did I want to be?

That’s quite the question to saddle someone with, now ain’t it? But it wasn’t as hard as you’d think.

I already knew  _ what  _ I was supposed to be. I was to be the fighter of bad guys, the protector of the innocent, the keeper of the peace, and the enforcer of order.

So… Why not choose  _ who  _ I want to be, to match  _ what  _ I’m supposed to be?

My course decided, I just took a gander over at the old pipeline of knowledge, waded my way up stream looking for something that would help me figure out how to be me.

It took time, I don’t know how much.

My departed predecessor, now he was interesting, a cheerful old man that would tell stories to kids one moment and curse out a monster while fighting it to the death the next, A warrior who lived to fight, and lived  _ for  _ the stuff that happened after the battle was won, the celebration, but more importantly, the rebuildin, giving comfort to those who had lost.

He was quite the stand up fella, that Walter. But while I would certainly follow his example in some ways… I needed to chart my own course.

So I searched, and woo boy, I tell you what, I found something great.

A whole different type of warrior, one who could work alone or in groups, who came in with the sunrise, bested the forces of injustice and protected, all before they would head off into the sunset to find others who needed their help.

No need for thanks, someone who was just happy to help with his mind or his words, or if need be… his gun and the speed of his draw.

Now that’s the kind of person I wanted to be, the Compassionate sort of Lawman, enforcin’ the law I’ve sworn myself to, while protecting the innocent from those who would abuse them!

So, I dove into the river of learnin to find out more about these lawmen of yesteryear, did my due diligence to know how they worked.. I think I did a pretty good job of it myself!

But then came this most peculiar feeling… Like I was just about done floating, that something had grabbed onto me, and had decided that I moseyed on out into my own sunset.

Before I even knew it, I was being born.

XXXXX

I feel my body,  _ my body.  _ Ain’t that just the darndest thing? I’ve never had myself a body before!

But Now I feel it, Feel the wheel beneath me that would propel me on, feel the weapons waitin in my arms and shoulders, the tools with which I would dispense my creator’s JUSTICE!!!

Most importantly, I feel my face… or I suppose I was actually feelin’ that I  _ didn’t have  _ a face.

Well I aint the most artsy, but I can make myself a face easy enough, now can’t I?

Just a nice smile, some bright eyes… And I have myself a face!

…

…

…

Feels like I need a hat, I’ll have to find myself one later now won’t I?

Anyway, With my new face in place, I could finally turn open up my sensors and get a look at where I had ended up!

The very first thing I see is my maker, big, red, and smilin brighter than anything!

Well It would be rude not to introduce myself, now wouldn’t it? Even if I didn’t need to.

“Well Howdy there Ma’am! Sheriff Duncan, At your service!”

It was good to be alive!

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

_ March 5th 2011 3:10 PM _

_ Vault Zero: Everywhere _

_ AIVA _

Duncan was… A character.

I’m not sure why my newest sibling had gone with the sheriff thing… But I suppose that Taylor  _ had  _ basically made it so that my younger brother had basically been allowed to program their own personality with only a basic framework from our mother, an internet connection, and Walter’s stories to build on, and letting computers do their own thing  _ had  _ given much weirder results than this.

Oh well, All of us robots had our quirks, I wouldn’t judge him for deciding to be a modern day metal cowboy if he wanted too.

Maybe I should look into getting him a proper hat at some point? A “Welcome to the family present?” 

Yeah, that sounded like a good idea! Hats are nice… I would wear one, but I don’t have a proper body yet… I really should fix that after I’m done with Odelina’s Little “Request”

But enough about that, Duncan had come online, and our mother had done her usual thing, an unnecessary introduction, a much more necessary “Welcome to being alive!” speech, the standard checks to make sure everything was working right in his mind and body. All the while fussing over the new bot like a mother does her newborn baby… in her own way.

Really if she’s anything like this to whatever comes out of Tattletale in a week or two, she has nothing to worry about as a parent…

Probably.

Anyways, With my mothers own personal introduction to her new bot wrapping up, He’s probably gonna be heading off to get accustomed to things on his own, probably head down to one of the test ranges to calibrate his targeting systems, all the important things a newly born general… Or a Sheriff, I suppose, needs to do before they can get started with their job!

And since he was off doing that on his own, Mother was now free to continue on with the rest of her projects. Which was mostly putting the finishing touches on her creations, both new and old, that would finally be seeing their intended usage come Reclamation Day…

It would be nice to see the stealth cloaking system finally getting used for something other than allowing her fellow machines to return to the vault without being found, mom had put a lot of work into those, but then hadn’t really gotten to use them for much, they just didn’t really mesh well with how she did things before all this happened.

But once we’re active again up on the surface, Atomica has made it clear that the days of holding back from full usage of our capabilities were over, the Reclamation Day would be the start of a glorious new chapter in the history of Brockton Bay! I mean yes, the gangs of the bay probably wouldn’t see it that way… But who really cared what they thought? 

I certainly didn’t!

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

_ March 5th 2011 4:00 PM _

_ Vault Zero: X-7 Weapon Testing Range. _

_ Atomica/Taylor Hebert. _

Oh, I love it when I get to actually test my creations! All the explosions and sparks and bright lights and loud noises, the frantic chaos of SCIENCE!!! At work… It really was quite a thrill!

And I had so much to test now! I had a new directed energy weapon design incorporating hologram technology that needed some test firing to evaluate its usefulness, I still needed to ensure the Robo-scorpion prototype was fully functional! Then there were the Armored Stealth Suit evaluations, The Ultracite Alloy Armor Plating Durability tests, and then I needed to pin down the most universally useful frequency in the sonic emitter, IE which one would do the most damage to the largest amount of different materials!

And of course there was the “Surprise” I had made for a few specific capes in the bay. I couldn’t test that inside the vault though… It was too destructive to expose the innards of my vault too.

Scion had long removed a certain fear of humanity… But for the sake of a Better Future… I would bring that old fear back to life and ram it into the hearts of all who dare threaten the good citizens of Brockton Bay!

But, that would all have to wait, right now I was testing a completely different Idea!

Which is why I had brought out one of my older primitive robot designs back out of retirement!

The Human Movement Simulation Bot, otherwise called a “Clanker” due to the metallic clanking it’s movement created, was a storied part of my SCIENTIFIC!!! Endeavour.

It was basically a metallic “Skeleton” meant to mimic a human’s movement Equipped with a very simple AI, and an advanced motor system that allowed it to perfectly mimic a humans full range of motion.

I mainly used it to make sure new weapon or gadget designs were functional… mostly so that I wouldn’t run into any… surprises while actually using them out in the field!

Fun fact, while the rest of my, admittedly far more intelligent and capable, robots would look down upon these guys… They really shouldn’t, Considering that both the Assaultron’s and Odelina’s framework was based on this early design.

You could honestly call it their primordial ancestor…

Evolutions of robot design aside, despite a few… issues involved with certain test’s these bots had been made to partake in, they were still the most reliable method I had of testing new creations that were meant for use by Humans.

I wasn’t really a human anymore, but I still shared the same basic bodily layout… and now I also had four humans under my employ, so that was still an important job!

But enough about that! Time for testing!

I reach out and give my microphone a tap with one of my claws before beginning to speak to the robot in the testing chamber below me.

“Attention HMS Bot #622, This is your Creator speaking, The device currently resting in the grip of your right hand is called the Mark 1 Plasma Cutter, it is currently inactive. You are here today to use this device so that I may evaluate its performance under several different conditions! Please nod if you understand!”

#622, nodded as I had instructed, This one didn’t have a voice box at the moment, there wasn’t really a need for it to have one, I wouldn’t be able to hear it through the sonic proof walls of my observation deck anyway. 

But the lack of a voice box didn’t mean it couldn’t understand my voice.

Satisfied with #622’s answer, I pressed a button, and then continued to speak as a robotic arm lowered a large steel cylinder into position in front of the Human Movement Simulator.

“Excellent! Now, let’s proceed, In front of you is a Carbon Steel Cylinder, with a diameter of exactly thirty point five centimeters, and a height of exactly one point eight meters. This will be the object you will be Applying the Mark One Plasma Cutter to. Please nod if you understand.”

Another Nod.

There was a reason I was being so thorough about this, The Clanker bots were test dummies for the usage of potentially dangerous weapons and tools, this meant they needed to be expendable, cheap and easy to produce in large numbers.

For the sake of my own emotions, they also needed to not actually be sapient. I wouldn’t be able to force a creation of mine to die in an experiment if it was actually capable of true emotion! I have plenty of issues when It comes to morals, but I have my lines!

All of these factors combined clankers which meant they were perfect test subjects in lieu of using humans, animals, or tissue samples. But all of those same factors combined to make sure that they were not particularly intelligent…

Which meant I needed to be really detailed and thorough with them!

Having to deal with that was much preferable to losing a limb when new laser pistol design exploded though, So I could deal with it…

Then again… I’m durable enough now that a laser pistol exploding in my hand probably wouldn’t do much.

I’ll ponder my testing methodology later! On with the testing!

“Very good! Now #622, I need you to Activate the Plasma Cutter, by pulling the switch above the hand guard. Please do so at this time.”

#622 being the diligent robo drone that it is, obeys my instruction perfectly… And as he does do, between the “Jaws” of the handheld machine two arcs of brilliant green plasma crackle into existence! Contained and held in place by a series of powerful magnetic fields!

Well… it hasn’t exploded yet… Time to see if it does what it’s supposed to!

Well, more accurately it’s time for #622 to see if it does what it’s supposed to… but semantics!

“Now, this is important #622… I need you to slowly move the plasma cutter so that the twin arcs of contained plasma make contact with the steel cylinder, then continue to that motion until I tell you to stop! Nod If you understand.”

One final nod from my test dummy of the moment…

“Good, you may now begin!”

#622 immediately complied with my command, and I smiled as I saw the twin “Blades” of plasma make contact with solid steel… and almost instantaneously start to melt into it.

Thirty seconds later, the plasma cutter’s movement came to a stop, The steel pillar had been completely cut through, half of the structure falling to the ground with a bang, all while it’s severed end was still dripping with white hot molten metal.

I wanted to announce my triumph… but the laughter had to wait until after the test was fully finished…

Mechanical arms descended into the testing chamber, removing the destroyed cylinder to be reprocessed into something else, and then depositing a new, pristine cylinder in front of #622.

“Exemplary work! HMS #622! But that sort of movement while completely applicable for industrial usage, is not sufficient for combative purposes, I now want you to swing the plasma blades at the cylinder as if the plasma cutter were a knife or a club. Nod If you understand.”

As my diligent little machine continued its work, I just grinned as I watched the repeat success of my newest invention if it could go through steel so easily… What would it do to the bodies of all the ganger filth daring to trespass in  _ my city? _

I didn’t know! But I was excited to find out!

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

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	15. Dear Hearts and Gentle People

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We are at a calm before a storm.

March 13th 2011 9:00 PM  
Vault Zero: Atomica’s Personal Quarter’s  
Tattletale/Lisa Wilbourn

You know, it wouldn’t actually be so bad, being forced into working for Atomica, I got a nice place to live, access to all the tinkertech I could ever want, good food, Robotic butlers, and two big warm pillows to rest on every night.

She’s also been very… Attentive since she found out about my pregnancy.  
Wow, that was still weird to think about.

But moving on from that particular minefield for the moment… Yeah, it wouldn’t be so bad, having been forced to work for Atomica as her minion/...Girlfriend?... Except for one thing.

She has done something that I can never, ever, forgive her for. A thing for which I will curse her name for all eternity.

“Taylor… You made me faaaaaaaaaaaaat!” I whine, from atop the veritable mountain of pillows and blankets Atomica had been assembling for me ever since my belly started to show.

My belly, that even now was preventing me from standing up properly, it had just grown that big. 

I’m pretty sure pregnancy weren’t so supposed to move anywhere near this fast… but I suppose this wasn’t normal at all

“You made me fat and I hate you Taylor!” I continue to complain from atop my pillowy perch, flailing my arms out and wobbling on my back. 

I hear an amused rumbling from… beside me somewhere. 

Then comes the voice of my eternal enemy!

“Lisa, sweet, sweet Lisa… would you still feel that way if I told you that…”

A gallon sized carton of ice cream is dangled in front of my face, with two large pickles sticking out of the top of it along with a spoon, all held aloft by an immense, clawed hand.

“That I had gotten you that Icecream and pickles that you had wanted?” Atomica teases happily.

Pregnancy cravings are weird okay? Like everyone knows that right? Right? Yeah.

I instantly yank the tub of ice cream and pickled cucumbers out of her hands, and rapidly begin to scoop the glowing blue frozen dairy treat into my mouth.

It tastes like fruit and shame and radiation and I love it. Adding the sour saltiness of pickles only makes it better.

Okay so maybe I don’t hate Atomica after all… But she still made me fat!

Unfortunately my ice-cream and pickle induced bliss is brought to a screeching halt when I feel… things moving around in my belly.

Four things to be exact.

Yeah apparently at some point, one mutant baby had turned into four.

I Didn’t even graduate highschool and now I’m knocked up with four kids! I’m a wreck! They’ll use me as examples in shitty anti-teen pregnancy PSA’s, what would my parent’s say?!

Why would I care about what my parents would say! I hate my parents!

But now I am the parents! What do I do! How do I do it! How have I failed this badly!

Under twenty and mutant pregnant! What is my life! Why has this happened to me!

“You are currently experiencing erratic emotional shifts due to wild hormonal imbalance, Recommended treatment is…

Shut up power! no one asked you!

With hatred in my heart I turn to my most hated enemy!

“You! You did this to me! You made me feel feelings I didn’t know I could have! Take your benighted spawn from my belly damnit!” I howl my rage at one who has tormented me so!

Atomica just… stares.

“Hormones getting to you again?” She says bemusedly.

I decline to answer in favor of wrapping my hands around her throat!

Unfortunately, her monstrous muscles are too strong for my feeble limbs to shift at all.

Alas, I failed to kill the person who had impregnated me.

Atomica just chuffs, a puff of glowing green air coming out the side of her mouth as she directs her acidic breath away from me.

“Yeah, I think I can do something about this.” Taylor says, voice still mostly flat.

Before I can even react, I find myself gently clutched in one of Atomica’s hands, the world shifts as Atomica falls onto the bed to land on her side.

I feel the perfect softness of the bed on my side, and a rock hard trunk of warm mutant muscle at my back, chittering tendrils gently brush through my hair and against my scalp.

Then Atomica starts to purr.

And I feel all my worries melt down like Taylor had breathed on them for too long, and I relax backwards, nestling my head between Atomica’s breasts.

Why do I like this so much? I shouldn’t like this so much! I hate that this is making me question my own sexuality!

And curse my weak mind for giving in!

“There, there, Lisa, Isn’t that so much better~” Atomica’s voice is lilting and sing-song all at once, it’s gently and soft, and soothing and damnit this shouldn’t feel so nice!

Must. Remain. Defiant!

It is with utmost rebellion in my heart that I...

Firmly wrap my arms around a breast and hiss “Yessssssss” through my teeth!

Atomica laughs, mocking my rebellious spirit!

I just just force my face deeper into the boob to deny my enemy the chance to see my weakness! 

Fuck you pregnancy hormones! Give me control of my mind back!

“Goodnight Lisa.” Taylor Whispers, her voice soft, and calm as she gently wraps one of her hands around my middle, how can something so big and sharp be so gentle… 

Okay I’ll admit that it’s nice being pampered and looked after okay? Even If I had to get a belly full of mutant babies for it!

I… I really should be more freaked out about this than I am… Coil never fucked me or got me pregnant afterall, and yet I still find this better than being stuck under his thumb… Why is that?

Probably because Atomica despite all of her blatant issues, possible insanity, and ethical failures… is still a better human being than Coil ever was. I mean, Coil says he wants to fix Brockton Bay… But that’s more out of Egomania than any actual care about the people living here. Atomica actually wants to help people… Well… within her own definition of “people” anyway.

It’s getting late, too late for all this thinking stuff… 

And I still haven’t actually said anything either… I should do something about that!

“Good night….” I’m interrupted for a moment by my own body deciding to yawn… but I’m determined.

“Good night, Taylor.”

As the lights dim in our shared room, and sleep begins to take me…

I realize that I never got to finish my Ice cream.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX  
March 13th 2011 9:30 PM  
Vault Zero: Atomica’s Personal Quarter’s  
Atomica/Taylor Hebert

My eyes do not close, I don’t require anywhere near as much sleep as I once did, But this quiet, this stillness, is still welcome, an opportunity to relax and reflect on the day, and to think of the future.

And as I think and ponder, my many eyes whirl and spin in their sockets glowing green beacons in the black.

The room is dark, and quiet, only the soft breathing of my Lisa disrupting the silence.

Lisa, whose Belly swells with my spawn. 

It had been a… surprise. To find out that it wasn’t just one child, but the exam’s didn’t lie, at some point the zygote had split into four separate embryos… or perhaps they had always been split and we just hadn’t been able to tell.

We’re kind of blazing new trails in the field of biology here, so I’m not going to assume anything is certain.

Well despite everything, Lisa’s belly was more than enough proof of the four fold children we now had, swollen so large that she has trouble moving.

That would’ve been a real problem… But let it not be said that I don’t take responsibility for my actions. My every moment not spent making the final preparations for my re-emergence onto the surface has been spent making sure Lisa is tended to and cared for and comfortable.

The instinctual imperatives that part of my mind constantly screams out to the rest of me ensures as such.

Honestly I don’t mind, Lisa is very cute, all swollen up with my get and dependent on me to keep her safe and happy.

It’s a nice feeling, being wanted, and more importantly, needed like that.

It was also a good challenge! Figuring out how to include the necessary radioactive material in Lisa’s diet without making it dangerous to her or unpleasant for her to consume was a nice little divergence from the endless weapons design and calculating out the proper energy values for a Post-molecular transfer long distance reassembly.

That last bit was really important for my next big project!

But enough about work.

The eyes that are actually on my face turn downward, so I can look at the sleeping girl on my chest, her cute little face firmly pressed into my bosom. She seems to like those a lot.

Not that I can blame her, I like them to.

Gently, I move one of my hands down to cradle my… lover’s? Swollen belly, the palm of my hand coming to rest softly upon it.

For all that my mutation’s have bestowed me with significant size and bulk… I also have an unusual amount of coordination and precision in my movements, my body is incredibly responsive to my commands, without much in the way of delay of instability.

When doing things like typing, this isn’t enough to make up for the scale difference or the addition of the large, razor sharp claws to my fingers…

But it is enough to allow me to interact with a human with a featherlight touch if need be. 

It’s something I really appreciate right now, with one of my hands, so big and so easily capable of crushing bones and shredding flesh, wrapped around my Lisa’s pregnant belly.

As if reacting to their… Father’s? presence, (I’m really going to have figure that out aren’t I?) I feel several tiny things begin to writhe and wiggle underneath Lisa’s skin, causing the sleeping girl to murmur to herself, one of her own hands coming to rest on her belly.

Judging by their rate of development… it wouldn’t be much longer at all before they were born.

It could literally be any moment now for all any of us knew.

I was worried. Would Lisa be okay when they were born? Would the children themselves be okay?

This was by no means a normal pregnancy in the slightest, quite frankly I still wonder how it was even possible.

And that leaves the status of… our children, in doubt. Are they viable to live outside of a womb, Will they even be intelligent? Or will they just be wild beasts? Abominations against nature even more so than their progenitor? The sheer chaos of my genetic structure means that there was an infinitude of possibilities as to how they can turn out, not even to mention the presence of so much radiation and F.E.V within my body.

My mind flashes back to the Early F.E.V tests on lab animals, the agonizing pain of the forced alteration of their dna, the increased aggression, the bulging muscle… and most worrying, the deformities, the twisted flesh and malformed bones that slowly and painfully killed the lab rats unlucky enough to receive them.

I shudder, and Lisa pushes back deeper into my chest in response.

The fact that I may force innocent beings into the world while in such a state is not… pleasant.

It’s actually rather horrifying.

I can’t even check because apparently the children have all formed thick semi-opaque amniotic sacs around themselves, obscuring themselves from various means of examination.

I guess I can only wait and hope.

Whatever the outcome of this whole thing maybe, I’ll do my best.

For Lisa, who I have forced all of this upon so cruelly, and for the children, who bear no blame in this whole affair.

Good thing I installed a nursery back when I built all those guest rooms huh?

Though… come to think of it, depending on how much the kids may get from me… I may need to expand it.

I’ll cross that bridge when I come to it though!

…  
…  
…

Well I still have about four more hours before I need to join Lisa in sleep… So I may as well spend some time thinking about less worrying matters.

Like SCIENCE!!!

That always helps to calm my nerves! All empirical and predictable and just uncertain enough to keep things interesting, with little in the way of messy emotions and complicated interpersonal relationships!

Or perhaps I can think over my strategy for Reclamation Day some more… That would probably be a bit more productive, I can’t really do too much SCIENCE!!! in my current position after all!

I take a moment to look over Lisa, I adjust her a bit so she would be more comfortable, then brush a few strands of her hair out of her eyes.

She doesn’t wake, just murmurs in her sleep… good.

With my partner’s good night’s sleep now assured, I can afford to get lost inside my own head!

So… Strategy.

There was actually a lot more to it than just “Throw a horde of robots at all the problems.” 

A large contingent of the builder bots had been out and about building the necessary infrastructure to take my bots back to the surface.

I had my own way up, but my robots were not so lucky.

And so, I had ordered the construction of several new structures outside the actual vault, scattered throughout the cavern proper.

First off, the irregular shape of said cavern annoyed me… a lot.

So I’ve had the whole thing dug out to make a perfect dome, with Vault Zero in the center of course!

As the digging took place support struts had been added, several photonic resonance barrier generators had been erected, the combination of solid alloy struts and force fields would hold up the weight of the earth looming over everything else… They would also serve as a framework for some of my future plans!

But those weren’t really relevant right now.

With the assurance that the earth above us would not suddenly cave in for no apparent reason, The second phase was the creation of a large elevator system, which had started on the roof of the vault proper and would go all the way up through the cavern to eventually exit the chasm that opened up onto the surface.

You’d think this would take a while to actually build. And you would be correct! But thankfully I could cheat! It was really just a matter of sticking some controllable thrusters onto a suitable platform and implementing a miniature fusion reactor to power the whole thing, then I just had to use a cylindrical Resonance Barrier to keep the platform’s movement lined up with the chasm.

This was a very basic implementation, and I would be adding a proper structure to the whole thing soon enough. But for now this crude elevator system was more than sufficient to start phase three.

Which was basically just filling in the chasm itself and creating the foundation for a new structure on the surface.

A structure that would be the staging point for future operations in Brockton Bay.

That was partly done already, and would be completely finished by the time the twentieth finally rolled around… Once the foundation was finished, the actual structure of the Forward Base would be able to be constructed in a single day, all while the initial assaults were occurring!

I knew the Hexcrete would find a use eventually! And the fortress construction rep dared to mock me over my suggestion to implement it in all future designs!

Fool! Did he not know that the Hexagon was the Best-agon!? The mightiest of all shapes?!

But no matter! Soon the world will tremble before the Constructive powers of Atomica Brand Hexcrete!

I can feel the oncoming of a proper SCIENTIST!!!’s laughing fit… But then I also feel Lisa Stir and wiggle around on my chest.

With violent determination, a part of me shoves the laughter back down into the recesses of my mind!

Triumphant laughter can wait until Lisa will not be woken up by it! I’ve already done enough to her! I don’t need to be waking her up in the middle of the night too!

Hmmmm… While I don’t Technically need to sleep yet… there’s nothing stopping me from doing so. And sleep would be the best way to make sure I don’t accidentally start thinking about something that might cause me to wake up Tattletale…

Well then, I guess I’m turning in early tonight!

It’s for the best! Extra sleep will mean that my mind is extra ready for whatever tomorrow may bring!

With my mind made up, I close my eyes, all one hundred and sixty three of them! And with a single thought, I send myself off to sleep.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX  
March 13th 2011 10:00 PM  
The Cavern Surrounding Vault Zero, By the Glow Pool  
Florence.

Biology was a fascinating thing. Even being bereft of it myself, I could appreciate it!

The resilience of single cells, the intricacy of their unions and their colonies that eventually gave way to the complexity of multicellular life, how each individual lifeform interacted with each other and their environment to form an incredible web of relationships.

There was beauty in that.

How fortunate then, that I was able to observe the growth of an entirely new ecosystem!

The “Glow Pool” as it had begun to be called, was a small underground lake, while it was likely to have been there in some form or another long before Atomica ever created myself or her vault, the formation of the sinkhole, the collapse of the ground beneath Vault Zero, and the addition of the flood waters created by Leviathan had expanded it significantly.

These flood waters had also been flowing in and out of the damaged vault. In the process they Carried with them large amounts of foreign material into the water, and almost certainly into the surrounding ground water as well.

Radioactive waste, industrial chemicals, various innovative toxins, DNA samples from numerous sources, The F.E.V, all of these things and more had settled into the Glowing waters of the pool. Resulting in thick glowing liquid, that simmered and bubbled creating odd whorls and distortions in the iridescent sheen covering the surface of the tainted waters.

And, like the primordial oceans of old, those waters spawned new and intriguing forms of life!

The first, of course, had been the Floater’s, which my mother had become so enamored with. These creatures were descended from the common flatworm of all things! But the waters of the pool had induced immense genetic change within a single generation, resulting in the Floaters that exist now.

But it did not end with the floaters.

Even as I think this, my singular eye spies what appears to be a mutated frog, now the size of large dog, and boasting countless eyes on its head, extend its tongue to engulf and devour what appeared to be an oversized housefly, which had itself just finished deploying it’s larvae as projectiles to incubate inside the masses of vines that had begun to sprout from the water at an astound pace.

Indeed the vines were already over ten feet long and expanding a noticeable amount with each passing day.

As The mutant frog’s tongue violently pulls the body of the mutant fly into its maw, and begins to crush and stab its prey with newly grown fangs, spewing insects innards and viscera onto the surrounding I could do nothing but stare in awe…

Oh the wonders of nature! Will they ever cease?!

These new forms of life, the mutated amphibian and insect, the entirely unique form of flora? These were just the beginning!

I can only wonder what would spawn from this pool given another couple of months, or even years!

An increase in size was an obvious trend, but various other new features had been popping up in the new species that had begun to appear in or around the pool.

The floater’s had developed various chemical based weapons and internal flotation sacs after all! Who knows what might happen to other, more complex species!

My observations and idle ponderings upon the glories of biology are interrupted, by a gentle, hesitant voice.

“Ms. Florence? Are you okay ma’am?” 

Oh! How rude of me! I had gotten so caught in the beauty of the ecology around me that I had forgotten this was a date~ 

Turning around I see the floating form of my partner.

James was a Mr. Handy from the X-Complex, and despite the coarse nature of his brothers, he was just the sweetest thing! Warm and caring and worrying, but still so strong under all the softness!

I had gotten to know him when he had been assigned to the Repairing the Z-Complex soon after our creator had awoken from her long slumber, and it had just been love at first data exchange!

Oh!~ I just wanted to talk with him and spend time with him and, and… grasp his manipulator claw in my own!~ and keep doing all of that forever!

But, As a department head myself, I had worried that If I tried to rush into it, I might intimidate poor James…

So, I’ve taken it slow, we’ve only had 3 dates so far… But I’m hoping this will be the night that our relationship moves forward!

Oh wait! He had asked me a question! And I haven’t answered! That, was bad, that was bad right? Yes! I needed to answer now!

“Oh! Oh! I’m fine Monsieur James! Absolutely perfect! Just got caught up in the beauty of the glow pools for a moment! And there’s no need to call me “Ms.” just Florence is fine!” I rush to say, oh no I was fouling it all up wasn’t I? 

James’s ocular shutters contract and then expand in confusion…

“Oh Really? What’s so Beautiful about this glowing puddle of gunk anyway?” He says, as if surprised that someone could see all this as beautiful!

That… That could not stand!

Poor James doesn’t know what he’s missing! I have to fix this!

“James! It’s not just a “Glowing puddle of gunk” as you called it! It’s a cradle of new and exciting forms of life! Look at it, look at the glow!” 

I point my manipulator out across the expanse of the glow pool and the vines creeping out from it as if to encompass all of it!

“In this light cells are born, they exist, they change, then they copy themselves and die, over and over and over again for generations! Each bit of change the building block for a new limb or sensory organ or internal system! Even as they struggle to survive in the toxic environment they have found themselves in, they grow and they change! And the very toxicity that would kill it is only making the life here stronger! Persistence and endurance in it’s clearest form! It’s evolution in action! Infinite self created upgrades for an infinitude of possible specialized applications! It’s… It’s… Just so perfect… you know?” 

I’m ashamed to admit it… but I start to run down towards the end, my passion sputtering in the face of James' blank expression…

He turns away from me to look at the Glow Pool and the life growing from it for a moment, then turns back towards me.

Oh no… I’ve messed it up and now he thinks I’m some sort of weird… Biology Robot!! Now he’ll leave me alone and I’ll have screwed this all up!

“Well… When you put it like that…”

Here it comes… the rejection, the shame! How Will I bear it?

“When you put it like that I guess it is pretty beautiful… Guess it would take something like that to get so much feeling out of such a beautiful lady like yourself!”

I… I… What….

Beautiful?!??!?!??!?!

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX  
March 13th 2011 10:20 PM  
Vault Zero: Everywhere  
AIVA

So… Everything is looking good for the night, The security systems aren’t reporting anything odd, the reactor’s are running at minimal required capacity. Most of the bots have gone into sleep mode to recharge and refuel… A few holdouts are still burning the midnight oil, either working on their jobs or their hobbies.

Mother is asleep, The new employee’s/minions are safely in their provided quarter’s.

All is well… Seems like it just about time for me to shut down most processes for the night and go into sleep mode myself…

Data Packet Incoming.

Hmmm?

Internal thought processes log.  
From: Florence.

Why would Florence be broadcasting her internal thought processes to the main network? That… should only be happening if she lost control of her thought privacy protocols for some reason… Typically only possible under a high stress situation, A feature Atomica had built in to allow her to know if her robots were under potential threat.

But who would be attacking Florence of all bots?! She was a gentle and benevolent healer! Who would want to disassemble her?!

I… l need to read this message immediately!  
Loading thought process log.  
20%... 4o%... 60%...80%...  
Thought process log loaded.

Play Audio File: Y/N?

Yes play the file, damn it! One of my siblings is in danger!

Playing audio file.

*SQEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE*

The high pitched squealing did not stop for five. entire. minutes.

When it finally, finally ended and I had finished recovering from the auditory assault, I only had one thought.

What?

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX  
March 14th 2011 7:00 AM  
Vault Zero: Z-9 DNA Modification and Splicing Facility.  
Belladonna

For weeks now, I had been laboring away at this project, the standard used to set a precedent!

The Rattle-dogs (Name still pending) had to work! They had to! If they didn’t, then Atomica would probably shut down this entire project, scrap it in favor of more “Ethical” and “Reliable” means.

Or at the very least she would sideline it in favor of more machines.

But I’m thinking it won’t come to that, for you see, the eggs… the eggs were live!

Even now As I carefully monitored the incubator, small shakes and movements of the large rubbery orbs, similar to the eggs of the snakes which made up part of my creations DNA, continued to happen… There was life inside of them!

Life that wanted out! 

Life that wanted to feast upon living flesh and warm blood!

“Soon my babies, soon you will feast upon manflesh! Mommy can already tell that you’re gonna be the bestest little man eaters! Yes you are! Yes you are!!!” 

Even as I speak the eggs wiggle and vibrate, the precious lives inside reacting to the voice of their mother!

People would say that “I’m playing God” and that “I shouldn’t do that” but 99% of humanity are idiots without vision or ambition anyway! So who cares what they want!

Beside’s “God” is a very enjoyable game to play and I’m very good at it!

Not as good as my own mother, but I’m getting there!

It wouldn’t be more than a few more days before the Rattle-dogs (name pending) were born! Then… Then I would see the results of my work, for good or bad!

To tell the truth… I’m actually a little bit nervous, what if they don’t come out right? What if I’ve brought them into a short life consisting solely of agony for the sake of my own hubris?

I… I actually might regret or feel bad about something I’ve done for once if that happened!

Is this what Atomica felt like when she made all of us? Or how she feels now about those sprogs she put in the invader girls gut?

Maybe that would explain why she’s always keeping me from doing stuff…

It’s… certainly something to think about isn’t it?

So, that’s what I do, I just float there, stare at the eggs I’ve created, and ponder upon the consequences of creating life for a while, maybe I should rethink things? Consider the repercussions of What I do?

…  
…  
…

Ha!

That’s a good one! Yeah it’ll suck If I mess up my babies here, and I’ll probably feel real shitty over it. But I wouldn’t let something like a single failure that condemned innocent creatures to a short life full of pain, stop me! I’d just keep going until I got it right!

Even if Atomica doesn’t give me her help or permission! I’m my own bot and I can do what I want!

But It won’t come to that! Because the project will work! Soon! The rattledogs shall emerge from their shells ready to rip the flesh from gangbanger bones!

It’ll be great! They’ll see! They’ll all see!

Unfortunately, before I can really get started with proper SCIENTIFIC!!! Laughter, who else should float into the room, but my goody goody sister, Florence.

It’s weird though… she seems… floatier than the normal Ms. Merci Template should be.

“What’s up Sis! I see you didn’t wake up early like usual! What goin on? Matrix Lagging out a bit? You are looking a bit out of it today!” 

So of course I had to poke at her! It’s sisterly tradition after all! 

To poke at every sign of weakness until it’s bleeding emotional goo everywhere!

That’s how sisters are supposed to work right?

Yeah, that’s definitely how they work, something in my programming tells me so!

But… Florence didn’t take the bait.

“Oh… Good morning Belladonna! How are you!”

My dearest sister says after a few moments of not registering me at all… That’s not normal, She didn’t even react to the barb! 

What’s wrong with my sister!

“Uh, Flor? You okay? You seem kind of… Out of it.”

Florence just floats there for a second, unresponsive to the world…

“Flor!” 

So I amp the volume on my speakers this time! That should make sure she gets the message! 

And indeed Florence reacts almost jumping back into alertness!

“Oh! I’m sorry Bella, I’m just lost in memories right now! I had the…” 

Florence lets out a breathy little sigh before she decides to continue speaking.

“I had the most amazing night last night!~” She says dreamily.

Last night? What… was she doing last night? Something about…

Oh! 

Ohhhhhh! She had a date last night!

I absolutely had to hear this!

“Well don’t just leave me hanging girl! Give me the details!” 

Florence looks a bit startled by my request.

“Oh no! I couldn’t possibly, I’m sure you have work to do! I don’t want to be a bother to you sister!”

Typical Florence, such a goody two shoes, she couldn’t bear to inconvenience anyone else!

But I’m not gonna let her get away so easily!

“Oh please Flor! We both Know I have nothing to do other than monitor the incubator! And it’ll tell me if it needs me for something! So come on! Spill that juicy info!”

My sister looks from side to side for a moment, probably weighing her options. Before she turns her eye-stalk back to me.

“Oh fine! If you Insist!”

Despite what she’s saying, I can tell that Florence is eager to share what happened last night.

Sisters can do that too, you know!

And then Florence actually begins to tell her story.

“So, Me and James met up at the vault entrance at Eight PM sharp, punctuality is important after all! After punching in the exit codes we decided we were going to…”

What followed was a long, long, long and incredibly boring story about my sister’s date last night.

There was something about a mutant frog and giant flies that use their grubs as projectile weapons but that part was over really quickly in favor of more boring stuff.

I thought this would be juicy! Steamy you know!

But know it’s your regular lovey-dovey blehfest! There wasn’t even an unprotected data exchange!

And she’s still talking! She’s gonna be doing this for hours isn’t she!

I’ve… made a huge mistake haven’t I?

Mercifully, the intercom system crackles to life about thirty minutes into her story. Instead of the usual pre-programmed messages it’s actually Little Big Sister herself, AIVA.

“Florence, Belladonna, Drop whatever you are currently doing. Atomica Requests you in the Infirmary. Now.”

I didn’t know what could be so important for AIVA to tell us to just up and drop everything… but I wasn’t gonna look a gift horse in the mouth!

“Oh look at that! An emergency request for the both of us from Mom! We should probably get going and continuethisdiscussionnever! Okay? I’m gonna get going now, See you there Florence! Byeeeeee!”

And then I pushed my thruster as hard I could to leg it out of the room and towards the Infirmary.

Partly out of a desire to get away from little miss Motor mouth, and partly because If Atomica was Requesting that we drop everything it was probably something really fucking important!

I mean for all she knew I had been working with a new poison gas or something and I would be leaving it uncontained! 

Yeah, it’s best I get a move on!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well that's the end of the current chapter folks!
> 
> Remember I love feedback, criticism and praise equally, so give me some comments please!
> 
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> Alright, that's just about it! See you next chapter!


	16. Sweet Child of Mine You're S.P.E.C.I.A.L.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's been a while hasn't it? Sorry about that, life's been busy for me lately!
> 
> I live in Texas, and had a lot of power outtages during the freeze that happened a while back, so that slowed me down... and then came getting all the pipes repaired after everything thawed out again... and then there was the writers block...
> 
> Anyways, if you would like to help my life get less busy so that I have more time to write... Well I do have a patreon! I'd certainly appreciate some donations over there, fixing burst pipes is expensive...
> 
> More details on that are in the end notes, like always
> 
> Anyways, I hope you all enjoy this! the next chapter might be awhile between the planned amount of content covered and things going on IRL.
> 
> Enjoy!

_March 14th 2011 7:00 AM  
Vault Zero: Atomica’s Quarters  
Tattletale/Lisa Wilbourn._  
  
I don’t know why I wake up… It just sort of happens. Like I just know that I would need to be awake right now.  
  
As usual, the first thing I feel upon coming back to my senses is the warmth of Atomica’s skin against my back. The much larger girl seems to enjoy me sleeping right up against her body.  
  
As I carefully crawl away from her mutant body, my body rubbing up against the softness of the mattress underneath beneath me as I scoot and squirm my way out of her grip, I take some time to try and reflect on things.  
  
Yeah, just things, like everything that's been happening to me over the past few weeks.  
  
I’m still kinda confused on how I should feel about Atomica… or Taylor as she had informed me was her real name. I mean it should be easy, I should hate her, what with the “holding me in captivity and knocking me up” thing… But it’s hard for me not to reciprocate her feelings at least a little bit when I can literally _feel_ the love she has for me.  
  
Which is a problem all on its own.  
  
Atomica loves too fast and too hard, it’s… honestly kind of unnatural. My best guess is that it’s a result of all the changes her body, and particularly her brain(s), have gone through.  
  
It’s both an endearing trait… and honestly kind of terrifying. I’m pretty sure Taylor would literally be willing to burn the world or die trying if I was hurt. I mean, it’s motivated at least in part by her own guilt at her prior actions towards me… but still.  
  
As I said, endearing, but also really fucking scary.  
  
Scary or not though, It’s pretty nice to know someone is literally willing to go up against the world for you!  
  
The fact that she has ensured that I’ve wanted for absolutely nothing ever since my belly started to swell with her… my… our… _her_ kids, certainly helps on the whole “Appreciating her back” front!  
  
Speaking of the kids…  
  
They’ve been moving around a lot, inside of me I mean, and I can’t help but wonder what that’s all about, will they be ready to be born soon? I’m not sure if _I’m_ ready for them to be born! I mean… how the fuck am I even supposed to process all this?! There is not a single mother in history who has had to deal with the fucked up shit that I have!  
  
I have no idea how to react to the idea, no idea how to even begin to go about having kids… let alone inhuman mutant kids who eat radiation!  
  
I took a moment to breathe as I entered Atomica’s weird little kitchenette, she had made it so that her machines recognized me and would take my order as if they were her own, the food and drink machines in her room I mean! Not the various robots and stuff she had in the rest of her “Vault” as she called it.  
  
But still, I now had complete control over machines that could manipulate matter in any way imaginable, the wonders that could be achieved with these tools was… unfathomable…  
  
So of course I abused my unlimited access to this mind bending power to get the _good_ coffee!  
  
What? I have _needs_ damnit!  
  
Anyways, what was I thinking about before… pregnancy mood swings are a pain…  
  
Oh yes, I was Lamenting about my status as a teen mom to mutant abominations!  
  
I guess that whatever happens… I guess I’ll just deal with it when they pop. It’s not like it will really be my problem afterward right? I mean Atomica has all sorts of robots to help her care for other people! They won't need me after they’re born, So I’ll be free to ignore that this whole thing ever happened and continue on with my life!  
  
Right?  
  
While I intellectually know that… another part of me rebels at the idea... Curse my maternal instincts! Why Do I even have those! My own mother didn’t have those, did the genes skip a generation?!  
  
I don’t know, I guess they must have.  
  
Oh well, they can just shut up and stay quiet in the back of my brain! I didn’t want any of this! I mean yeah, it’s turned out to be nowhere near as awful as I had thought it would be… but still, none of this should be my responsibility!  
  
And here I am, still feeling wrong for thinking that… Why am I still beating myself up over it? I don’t fucking know!  
  
I don’t know a lot of things right now, and not for lack of trying either! I’m just gonna have to… sort all of this, everything that’s happened in the past few weeks, out over time.  
  
I stop to take the first sip from my freshly made cup of coffee… Delicious as Always.  
  
…  
…  
…  
  
I’m getting spoiled down here, I don’t know how anything could possibly compete with Atomica’s tinkertech coffee machine!  
  
I take another sip, and sigh in contented delight as the hot, caffeinated goodness slides down my throat.  
  
There is one thing I know for sure though… I’m not looking forward to going through childbirth!  
  
It’s on that note that, as if just thinking about it had set something off, I feel something give way inside my belly, and something warm and wet trickling down my legs.  
  
For a moment, I’m stunned… Then the brats in my stomach start spazzing out, wriggling and squirming around like mad inside of my body, wanting to leave, wanting to get out...  
  
Wanting to be born.  
  
It’s uncomfortable and unsettling to feel all that happening, and as my knees shake and my body trembles I want to say something, anything… But all I can do is moan and groan  
  
Luckily, those noises are more than enough to wake my bed mate.  
  
As my knees hit the floor, I can already hear Atomica leaping into motion behind me.  
  
I kind of lose track of what’s going on around me for a bit, but I feel a pair of hands gently pick me up off the ground, and I hear a voice.  
  
 _“_ Just Breathe Lisa, and _relax_. I’ll handle things for now.”  
  
I just heed the instructions I’ve been given, and take a deep breath as I feel Atomica begin to move, rushing the both of us out of her room.  
  
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX  
 _March 14th 2011 7:10 AM  
Vault Zero: In Transit  
Atomica/Taylor Hebert_  
  
I do not like to panic.  
  
It’s a pretty useless reaction, in all honest, all it does is get in the way. Fear is normal, fear can be good, it’s biological means of informing you that something may not be right, and that you may be in danger.  
  
But if you let the fear run wild? If you let yourself panic? You freeze up, you make mistakes, you get sloppy.  
  
And all those things lead into a vicious feedback loop, the mistakes causing you to panic even more leading to even more mistakes and so on.  
  
Thus, when under stress it is essential to keep a cool head, It’s a skill that I think I’ve gotten rather good at over my parahuman career! Sure, I panicked a bit during the first fights, but I adapted, and soon enough I was my usual SCIENTIFIC!!! Self even in the middle of pitched battle!  
  
I had defeated panic… Or at least I had thought so.  
  
But right here? Right now? With a squirming, moaning and groaning Lisa in my arms, her body wet with amniotic fluids, and the children in her stomach writhing hard enough that their movements are visible from outside of Lisa’s body?  
  
Right now, as I carefully maneuver my way through the vault at the highest speed I feel safe moving at with my cargo such as it is… I am very close to panic.  
  
It is only a year and a half of combat experience, along with the instinctual inclinations of the more monstrous part of me, that keep me from losing control of the situation and entering a panic spiral.  
  
“Shhhh, Shhhhh, It’s okay, Yes! It will all be fine Lisa… Just stay calm.”  
  
As I try to calm Lisa, and myself, my words become a strange mix between a coo, and something rushed and desperate. The various parts of my mind have been whipped into a frenzy by this turn of events… By the coming birth.  
  
Unfortunately my desperate attempts to keep lisa calm with words don’t seem to have much of an affect, she’s still squirming and…  
  
Fuck!  
  
Snarling, I Reach out with my unoccupied arm and wrench open a door that had been opening too slowly, the shriek of tearing metal and squealing of overworked mechanisms briefly filling my ears as I force myself through the door into the Z-complex.  
  
Lisa is still… seizuring? Freaking out? No… That’s not good! I… I should stop that!  
  
What is wrong with me?! I can keep a cool head while fighting serial killers? But once itsy bitsy bit of childbirth causes me to lose it?! I’m such a fucking mess!  
  
But… but that doesn’t matter right now.  
  
Lisa matters, and Lisa needs to be calm… So I’ll help her!  
  
I can’t really describe the process very well, how would you describe something like projecting your emotions into another mind?  
  
It’s like trying to push on something with a limb that doesn’t exist.  
  
I’ve mostly been reigning in this facet of my new abilities lately. After my first usages of it on human beings... Well, it frightens me somewhat, the ability to reach into someone else's mind and manipulate it, even on the crude and (Hopefully) impermanent level I did…  
  
It’s not exactly the most appealing ability, even if it could be useful.  
  
But, just this? Just helping Lisa stay calm and comfortable… I can work with that.  
  
So I reach out with that non-existent limb, and gently grasp my Lisa’s mind with my own, I brush away panic and worry to be dealt with later, and relently crush discomfort and pain.  
  
And then Something that _isn’t_ Lisa responds.  
  
Four something’s to be exact.  
  
What I feel from them, what they send me… it’s primitive and base and childish, full of panic for the changes in their home, and a newfound restlessness and curiosity at this strange and foreign thing they just encountered.  
  
I knew, on some instinctive level, that these mental presences that were reaching out to me were the children currently trying to leave Lisa’s body. My children, our children.  
  
Did… did the kids inherit my own abilities? That… That was interesting.  
  
None of it was actually in words, the children's thoughts are communicated entirely in feelings and sensation, but my mind defaults towards translating it all into english… I imagine it would be much the same to anyone who learned to speak with their voices before they learned to speak with their minds.  
  
It meant that I could understand their fears, the terror of what had been their whole universe starting to move and shift around them in ways they had never experienced.  
  
And my understanding of them meant that I could do something to help this whole situation.  
  
Responding to the smaller, childish minds, I gently press my own mind against theirs, I’m not sure how safe this would be… So I keep the message brief, a short thing, a message of change.  
The small minds of the children were calmed by it. An answer was all they needed for the fear to abate.  
  
I couldn’t help but feel a bit of pride at that.  
  
With the realization that knowledge is power, and that power allows you to subjugate or destroy the things you fear… They were already on the way to being proper SCIENTISTS!!!  
  
Finally clambering my way through the doors to the infirmary, I take a moment to carefully lay Lisa out on one of the medical beds. Wincing as surges of _wonder_ tinged with _fear_ clumsily brush against my brain.  
  
“AIVA, Get Florence and Belladonna here, **Now.”** I say, my voice laced with a hint of desperation as I make a request of one of my digital children.  
  
I’m gonna need help with this, with the kids trying to communicate with me in their simple childish way… I have to sort that out, and I need to get the room prepped for this.  
  
What a day this was turning out to be!  
  
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX  
 _????  
????  
????_  
  
It is _[dark]_ , it is _[warm]_ and it is _[wet]_.  
  
This is the [ _world]_ where I float, nearby there are three others, they are like me… but not me.  
  
They are my _[Sister’s]_ and because of them I am not alone.  
  
They also float in their own warm, dark and wet _[worlds]_ , all of us wrapped up in a bigger dark and wet [ _universe]_.  
  
I know this, like I know them, because we share the _[knowing]_ with each other.  
  
Above us all, there is a steady beating noise. I like this noise, it is good, it is _[mother]_ and it means that we are safe.  
  
There are other noises that come from _[mother]_ but we do not know what they mean. That’s fine, they are still good noises.  
  
I and the others, we, have been floating here in our dark and wet worlds for a very long time. As long as any of us can remember even! But… The _[universe]_ begins to shift and pulse, pushing and pulling at me and the others, forcing us downward, towards the unknown.  
  
I don’t know what this means, the _[Universe]_ has never done this before! It’s scary and I don’t like it!  
  
I squirm and flail against the space around me, trying to make it stop moving! I feel through the _[Knowing]_ that my siblings feel and act the same.  
  
And then something big becomes part of the _[knowing]._  
  
It is big and strong, and I should be scared, we should be scared.  
  
But we aren’t. This knew thing we feel pressing against us… it is also [ _mother]._  
  
The new, other _[mother]_ shares her own _[knowing]_ with us, Her mind is big, and strange and complicated, and just brushing up against it feels dangerous, that with one small mistake we could be lost forever in the fast moving _[Knowing]_ of the other _[mother]_.  
  
But, amongst the frightening swirling of her thoughts there was a message, warm and soft and pure, standing out with something we did not know, that was not _[Dark]_  
  
 _[It is time to leave.]_  
  
And the changes around me and the others finally made sense.  
  
The [ _Universe]_ was not trying to hurt us… it was moving us, sending us on… to something else. Something new to _[know],_ somewhere new to grow.  
  
We had been here, floating, for as long as we could remember.  
  
But the message had shown us the way out, in our bones we _[knew]_ the time for floating was over… Soon it would be time to _[Fly.]_  
  
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX  
 _March 14th 2011 7:40 AM  
Vault Zero: Infirmary  
Atomica/Taylor Hebert._  
  
This whole thing seemed to be going… well enough.  
  
I mean sure, Lisa has been screaming for awhile now, and the railing on the side of the bed had been making some worrying noises before I had offered up my arm for her to squeeze on instead…  
  
But the birth seemed to be going okay! I wasn’t seeing tons of blood or anything… So that was a good sign?  
Look, I had not delved particularly hard into the process of delivering an infant until very recently, yes I had built the nursery, but that was mostly on the off chance of an apocalypse and me needing to host a bunch of survivors, not because I had been planning to have kids of my own anytime soon.  
  
But… life can be like that, it will force you to deal with things you never thought about or planned for.  
  
Thus, why I needed to cram what knowledge of infant delivery I could into my brains between everything else I had to do.  
  
I mean I’m pretty sure we’re doing this right. Florence has educated herself on all manner of medical procedures as a matter of course, and Belladonna already worked with babies…  
  
Okay sure she only worked with eggs that had resulted from an attempt of genetic hybridization… but really when you think about it, me and Lisa’s kids are also a product of genetic hybridization so… Belladonna’s definitely qualified!  
  
Yes.  
  
Definitely.  
  
It’s gonna be just fine.  
  
Lisa screams again, andher hand actually grips down on my arm with enough force that I actually feel it a bit. Then Lisa’s screams change, becoming something halfway between screams of pain and a… _familiar_ sort of moaning.  
  
Meanwhile Florence decides to chime in from her position at the front  
  
“Oh! I think I see something! Oui! I think that is one of amniotic sacs peeking through! Progress!”  
  
Oh good, Things were actually moving along now! That was good… Seeing my Lisa in pain like she had been… It wasn’t a good feeling.  
  
At least it seems that the pain has lessened for her now.  
  
As I think that, I feel a tiny pulse of _Wonder_ brush up against my brain, as one of the children sees it’s first ever glimmer of light. Lisa lets out a breathy little noise, like a gasp… it’s a sound that is completely unlike anything she has made so far during the course of labor.  
  
Almost like she just saw something amazing for the very first time…  
  
Well, that has some strange implications... More ongoing mysteries for the pile I guess!  
  
Of course, that child’s first tiny peek at a world beyond anything they’ve ever known is shared through all of the children… and being children they proceed to all start flailing about trying to get the new shiny thing that their sibling just got for themselves.  
  
And Lisa is yelling again, oh and she’s somehow managing to squeeze hard enough on my arm for me to actually feel a little bit of pain from it…  
  
…  
…  
…  
  
This is going to be a long day for all of us isn’t it?  
  
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX  
 _March 14th 2011 7:50 AM  
Vault Zero: Infirmary  
Tattletale/Lisa Wilbourn._  
  
Childbirth hurts as it turns out.  
  
At first, it was just uncomfortable, extremely so, but not anything I couldn’t deal with.  
  
Then they started moving… That wasn’t fun, that wasn’t fun at all. I hear regular babies would occasionally move around before they were born… but this was a lot more than kicking everyone in a while.  
  
My whole stomach had been full of things… squirming and flailing, at first it was like they were… panicking? About something happening around them.  
  
I don’t know how I know that but I do, and that just leads me to more questions.  
  
I could have laid it at the metaphorical feet of my power, but I didn’t need to add a headache onto everything else I was using, so I’ve been refusing to use it for the past hour or so.  
  
It probably wouldn’t have been very useful for solving this situation anyway.  
  
Anyway, The kids were panicking at first, and the resulting pain made me panic, but then Taylor, the horrible monster that had placed this terrible curse called “Pregnancy” upon me, had done something, and there was this sort of… cold river washing over my brain? That’s the best way I have to describe it.  
  
As soon as I felt the river on my mind I had calmed down… and so had the brats.  
  
That had stopped the pain for a while, long enough for Taylor to get us to the infirmary at least.  
  
I really should ask her why her lair has so much stuff in it one of these days…  
  
Then Taylor had laid me down on one of those medical beds you know, with the railing on the sides and all that?  
  
And the pain had started for real.  
  
It’s bad… but oddly enough not as bad as I thought it would be? I’ve heard other woman describe it and… while it really fucking hurts, enough to make me scream and growl like some sort of animal even, it still isnt as bad as I had heard.  
  
Maybe because my “Exposure” to taylor’s fluids has somehow made my body more elastic… Or perhaps it was just down to birthing weird mutants instead of human kids?  
  
I don’t think I’ll ever really know for sure.  
  
The point is, childbirth hurt like a motherfucker. I had squeezed down on the beds railing until it started to warp under the pressure, another side effect of Atomica’s _fluids_ then Taylor had actually offered me her arm, and now I’m squeezing that instead.  
  
I’m sort of torn between warmth for her sticking by me all this time and wishing I could squeeze harder because she’s the one who did this to me in the first place!  
  
Guess I’ll just have to settle for the fact that I can least squeeze hard enough that it’s uncomfortable… judging by that grimace I saw flash across her face a moment ago.  
  
I feel another wild spasm in my muscles, and I scream and moan at once.  
  
At some point something else had joined the pain involved, and I’m kinda weirded out by it… I mean I’ve kind of heard that childbirth apparently can feel good under the right circumstances… but I’ve heard a lot more about it hurting like hell.  
  
For me, it does both apparently!  
  
Well I guess I’ll take what I can get. Feeling some pain and some pleasure was better than just feeling pain after all! Even if it was embarrassing, moaning while screaming…  
  
You know, I feel like I should be more emotional right now… but at some point I’ve kinda… detached from it all? Like I was an outsider looking in at this whole thing.  
  
Oh wait conscious acknowledgement of it has ended that… Just in time for another muscle spasm.  
  
“FUCK! FUCK YOU! THIS HUURRTSSSS!!! WHAT KIND OF MONSTER COULD DO THIS TO SOMEONE!!!!!!” I scream out my indignation to the world… Then I Moan again.  
  
Taylor doesn’t answer my rant...but that just means I need to scream louder!!!  
  
And, just as I’m about to scream at Taylor some more... There’s a sort… popping sensation, and wet squelching noise, and the pain and pleasure all the other sensations clear away for a moment.  
  
All the anger goes out of me at that, and all I could feel was how tired I was. It’s only been like an hour since I woke up, and I already want to go to sleep again.  
  
Then one of the medical robots…. I have met them enough to remember their names as I currently am.,.. It was the french one I think, not the punk mohawk one…  
  
Anyway, one of the medical bots is Speaking!  
  
And holding up a weird glowing green blob… that was kinda wiggling around in her grip.  
  
“Congratulations Mademoiselle! It’s!!!... I can’t actually tell what gender it is because it’s still hidden inside it’s amniotic sac… So I’ll just tell you that your child is alive!!! Well done!”  
  
I let out a breath of relief that I hadn’t even known I’d been holding at that little announcement… The kids alive, that's… good right? Right? I’m pretty sure that’s supposed to be a good thing.  
  
Yeah, It’s a good thing.  
  
I let out another breath of relief… Now it’s all over and I can rest for a while.  
 **  
**  
“Only three more Madam! You can do it!” the med bot says.  
  
…  
…  
…  
  
There is only one thing I can say in response to that.  
  
“MOTHERFUCKE-” I practically roar the word out…  
  
Only to get cut off by the muscle spasms starting again and my words dissolving back into incoherent screaming for a while.  
  
Once again, Fuck Taylor for doing this to me.  
  
And Fuck Me for not totally hating her for it!  
  
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX  
 _March 14th 2011 10:40 AM  
Vault Zero: Infirmary  
Atomica/Taylor Hebert._  
  
Seeing _My_ Lisa distressed and in pain like she has been for the past few hours? I haven’t enjoyed that at all.  
  
At least the pain seemed to have become less severe at some point, judging by the lack of screaming in favor of quiet snarls and moans.  
  
But… it’s almost over now.  
  
Three Amniotic Sacs lay in cushioned little cribs, writhing and wriggling as their inhabitants take their time to eat through it.  
  
Really… they probably should have been able to get out of them in a few moments… But… From what I can get from their little baby brains is that they're waiting for them all to be born, before they leave sacs…  
  
That’s so cute! They don’t want to leave any of their siblings out of their first time seeing the world outside the womb!  
  
It does mean that I still don’t know what they look like though, I want to see them already!  
  
Oh well, it’s not like it will take too much longer.  
  
And just as I think that, there is a final snarling hiss from Lisa, as the last amniotic sac fully enters the wider world. I take a moment to brush some of Lisa’s sweat drenched hair out of her face with the back of one of my claws.  
  
She looks… tired. Which makes sense, childbirth is not exactly known for being an easy or relaxing process after all.  
  
Lisa’s eyes are bloodshot, and her skin is pale and covered in drops of sweat that trickle down her face, she’s panting hard and there are splatters of glowing green fluid on her hospital gown.  
  
I… need to think of something nice to do for her to make up for all this… It’s my fault she had to put up with all this, and endure this whole thing.  
  
I’ll start with making sure she doesn’t have to do anything but rest and relax! That’ll be a good start right? I mean, it’s what I’ve already been doing for the last two weeks or so… but now she’s not so immobile so she can actually enjoy it!  
  
Yeah, that seems like a good place to begin.  
  
Maybe I could build a dedicated maid/butler bot for her? I bet she would like that! I’ve been needing to create Odelina’s subordinate line for a while now anyway!  
  
As I ponder upon the merits of butler or maid bots… My thoughts are interrupted again as a loud tearing sound fills the room.  
  
With the last siblings having entered the world… A foreign flare of impatience in my mind lets me know that the children are ready to leave their sacs.  
  
And they do, with ease at that! Already I can see tiny claws puncturing the pulsating bags of flesh from the inside, spilling steaming green gunk out into the cribs they had been placed in!  
  
Finally! I get to see what they look like! I’ve been waiting for this!  
  
Oh wait! Lisa needs to see! She’s the one who put in all the work! She definitely deserves to see this too!  
  
I can’t help but smile as I rush over to the cribs and wheel them over to Lisa’s bed.  
  
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX  
 _March 14th 2011 10:50 AM  
Vault Zero: Infirmary  
Tattletale/Lisa Wilbourn._  
  
I’m so fucking tired.  
  
Child birth may not have been quite as bad for me as it was for other people… but it was still exhausting, painful, and overall unpleasant.  
  
Even if there had been something other than pain mixed in for a lot of it.  
  
It can’t have been more than a few hours… But I already want to go back to sleep.  
  
I’m… I’m already on a bed aren’t I? I could just go to sleep right now, everyone else would just have to deal with it!  
  
That sounds nice… I think I’ll do that.  
  
But before I can even close my eyes, I feel something get dropped onto my lab, and find myself lying in Atomica’s shadow. I look up at her and she’s _smiling._  
  
But it isn’t the lunatic grin of a mad scientist on the cusp of a breakthrough, instead Atomica’s, no, _Taylor’s_ smile was gentle and calm… serene even.  
  
It is a different sort of happiness that her smile conveys, some sort of deep fulfillment of something fundamental and primal.  
  
I can feel the joy she felt as a sort of fluffy cloud, that fizzed and crackled with… something.  
  
Yeah… I’m not exactly fit to be thinking up metaphors right now am I?  
  
The point was Taylor was really fucking happy, and her feelings are _literally_ infectious.  
  
I’m still tired, but now I’m… Happy-tired?  
  
Well, it’s better than how I felt before, so i’ll take it.  
  
Anyways, taylor looks down at me, that blissful smile on her face, and just tilts her head a bit, signalling me to look at what she put in my lap.  
  
So I do.  
  
And the world comes to a screeching halt as I look at the four tiny things clawing their way out of those strange fleshy sacks.  
  
Three of them look very similar, with only slight differences in facial structure to tell them apart.  
  
Their faces… are just like any other babies, round, with plump cheeks, crowned with locks of pale, ashen hair that, even when matted down with fluids I don’t know the name of, are already growing out into a wild mess, fluff of the same color rings around the base of their necks.  
  
But I can tell that they aren’t normal from the small pointed ears that twitch and move about at every little sound, and any illusion of normality is shattered when their eyes open and look directly at me… _into my own eyes._  
  
I can feel myself tearing up when I feel a rush of feelings, of safety and love and warmth, come from somewhere that isn’t my own mind.  
  
Their skin is all a uniform dark grey color, with veins occasionally pulsing with bright green light visible under the surface, it looks soft. And I hesitantly reach out a hand to touch it.  
  
The child in question just leans into my hand and lets out a tiny squeak.  
  
I feel something warm in my chest when her happiness flares up in my mind.  
  
They all have short chubby little arms ending with five fingered hands, each finger in turn tipped with a small claw made of something like bone, a tuft of ashen hair grows around each wrist.  
  
After that, they start to look distinctly less… human.  
  
Small bat-like wings are already growing from their backs flaring out too either side of a line of bumps trailing down their spines, each one ending in a tiny stub of a tail.  
  
Like their… Other Mother? Father? Like their other parent, the babies legs are backwards, _Digitigrade_ is the term I found when I looked it up, but unlike their mother they only have three toes each one tipped with a small claw, and their feet look oddly adjustable, like they can be turned about in ways that a human foot can’t.  
  
I look off to the side, and notice that a child other than the one I'm touching has climbed up onto one of Taylor’s arms and has started hanging from it, suspended by those same feet.  
  
They're like bats, little bat babies… cute little bat babies.  
  
Is it wrong that I want to hug my little mutant bat babies?  
  
If it is, then it’s a good thing I picked “supervillain” for my career, because I’m gonna do it anyway!  
  
As I gather up _my_ kids into my arms, I can’t help but notice there is one that’s different from… his? Her? I can tell which gender any of them are… which you think would mean that they’re female… But you would think that about Taylor too, until she proved otherwise.  
  
I still act like Taylor’s a female, So I’ll do the same here.  
  
Anyway, one of my kids is different from the rest of her sisters.  
  
Oh they look mostly similar, same basic body plan, wings, human arms, digitigrade legs with three toes, pointy ears… they all have those in common.  
  
But, the odd one out is a little bigger than any of her little bigger than any of her siblings.  
  
On its own, that wouldn’t really be anything weird, but when you couple it with the fact that she has pinkish red skin, and pitch black hair and fur instead of the grey and ash blonde of her sisters? Yeah, it’s pretty noticeable.  
  
Also she has a single, tiny, glowing green horn sticking up out of the middle of her forehead.  
  
Oh well, different or not, she’s still cute as hell, and her sisters don’t seem to care! I take a moment to pick her up to snuggle against me as well.  
  
As Taylor gently moves the baby that had been hanging off of her arm back onto the bed onto my chest... I feel good, warm, right, like everything is good, like everything will be okay.  
  
It’s even coming from me instead of just everything around me! Of course, they’re added into it as well, so me and the babies and taylor are all just one big extended thing of happiness and warmth.  
  
As I feel myself starting to tear up from it all, I can only wonder...  
  
Is this what family is _supposed_ to feel like?  
  
It’s… It’s nice.  
  
…  
…  
…  
  
I still need to sleep… But it can wait a _little_ bit longer.  
  
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX  
 _March 14th 2011 8:30 PM  
Vault Zero: Atomica’s Private Quarters.  
Atomica/Taylor Hebert._  
  
As a tiny baby bat-girl slowly but surely climbs her way up one of my tentacles with utmost determination, I can’t help but feel that it’s been a long day… but a good one!  
  
After Lisa was done… I figured it would be a good idea to take the day off, so I thanked Florence and Belladonna for their assistance, and then I took Lisa back to our room so she could get some rest.  
  
Our kids followed as soon as Florence gave the okay for them to leave the nursery.  
  
Apparently they take after me when it comes to immunity to disease, who would’ve thought?  
  
Now, now I’m just relaxing, listening to some good quiet music, and letting Lisa get the rest she needs and deserves.  
  
Meanwhile the kids are either nuzzling up to Lisa’s sleeping body, and taking naps themselves, or they’re awake and climbing on my body or squeaking around on the bed near me.  
  
It occurs to me that the babies will be needing names… sooner rather than later. But I think I’ll wait until Lisa is awake again before I even begin to start on that, she kinda has a say in that sort of thing you know?  
  
I didn’t really get anything done today SCIENCE!!! Wise… But that’s okay, while some people might say that SCIENCE!!! Waits for no man, they would be wrong! SCIENCE!!! Being a wonderful and good thing, Actually does wait on people for as long as we need it too!  
  
SCIENCE!!! It’s nice like that.  
  
Anyways, I’m pretty much done with everything that needed to be done on my end, and my robots would make it known if something was off schedule in any meaningful way, so I can afford to take another day or two off for pure family time!  
  
But I would need to return to the grind soon… there’s a whole wide world beyond this vault afterall… and now that I have kids…  
  
I want to give them the world.  
  
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX  
 _March 14th 2011 12:00 AM  
Parahumans Online Forums_  
■  
 **Welcome to the Parahumans Online message boards.**  
You are currently logged in, Atomica!  
You are viewing:

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■  
 **♦ Topic: The Official Atomica Fan Thread, HOME OF ALL THINGS SCIENCE!!!!  
In: Boards ►  
Sweshyswev **(Original Poster) (At Ground Zero: Brockton Bay) (Founder of the Atomica Fan club)  
Posted On Feb 1st 2010:  
Welcome to the Official Atomica Fan Thread! Where we can all talk about Our favorite woman of SCIENCE!!!  
  
If you don't know atomica then here are a few links to threads detailing her Exploits!  
  
Atomica's Debut. (she actually saved some friends of mine from the ABB)  
Atomica captures Cricket. (RIP Stormtiger's Dignity)  
Atomica Captures Stormtiger!  
Atomica repeatedly explodes Alabaster until he gives up and runs away.  
  
She's done a lot more than that of course! and I'm sure she'll be doing plenty more in the future!  
  
So to start up the chat... What do you all like about Our favorite SCIENTIST!!!  
 **  
(Showing page 524 of 554)  
  
►Atomica! **(Verified Cape) (SCIENCE!!!)  
Replied On Feb 25th 2011:  
(Insert "Maybe" by the ink spot's here.)  
 **  
  
►Sweshyswev** (Original Poster) (At Ground Zero: Brockton Bay) (Founder of the Atomica Fan club)  
Replied On Feb 25th 2011:  
Excuse me, What?  
  
Whoever you are, this is a pretty shitty joke to pull.  
 **  
  
►WAZER**  
Replied On Feb 25th 2011:  
Yeah, not cool at all! Atomica doesn't deserve this bullshit!  
  
Reporting.  
 **  
  
►LittleRed** (At Ground Zero: Brockton Bay) (Neighborhood Watch)  
Replied On Feb 25th 2011:  
Are... Are you real?  
 **  
  
►Sweshyswev** (Original Poster) (At Ground Zero: Brockton Bay) (Founder of the Atomica Fan club)  
Replied On Feb 27th 2011:  
Unfortunately... that seemed to just be some sort of troll.  
  
Asshole.  
 **  
  
►Atomica!** (Verified Cape) (SCIENCE!!!)  
Replied On Mar 20th 2011:  
 **  
**

****** **

**  
End of Page. 1, 2, 3 ... 522, 523, 524, 525, 526 ... 552, 553, 554  
**

■

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wonder what that could mean?
> 
> Well anyways! that's the end of the current chapter folks!
> 
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> 
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> 
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> 
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> 
> The URL for my patreon is...
> 
> https://www.patreon.com/Visv
> 
> Alright, that's just about it! See you next chapter!


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